


Wake Up

by Skysquid22



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: (but not really), Android Gavin Reed, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background HankCon - Freeform, Cats, Character Death, GV200 - Freeform, Graphic Descriptions of Apartments, Groundhog Day, Gun Violence, Happy Ending, M/M, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Violence, light fluff, rated M FOR MURDER, reverse au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-07-12 06:22:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19941646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skysquid22/pseuds/Skysquid22
Summary: “Gavin!”GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him.“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”Something was wrong.Something was veryverywrong.





	1. April 17th, 9:27 pm, 2027

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. I present to the midnight society--I mean. The public, I present this fic. I'm glad that I got this finished in time so I could post on my birthday!
> 
> But fic wouldn't be as clean without the help of my betas, cannedsunlight, Redpaladin101, and barbaesparza. Thank you so much guys for looking at this!

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.” 

Gavin rolled his eyes in tandem with his flickering blue LED. He sat up in his chair and took stock of his surroundings. April 17th, 8:41 pm, 2037. His update didn’t complete, he’ll need to try again later. It was partly cloudy with a 46% chance of rain. Detective Richard “Nines” Anderson stared at him and used his file as a makeshift fan. Gavin didn’t need his scans to tell him that he looked like he was done with everyone’s shit. 

Gavin reached up and snatched the file out of his hand. “And I thought you were supposed to be funny.” 

Nines smirked and raised an eyebrow at the half-assed retort. “Yes, yes, come on. I got an address on Applegate.” 

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot. Gavin pushed his chair away from his desk and followed Richard’s fast step out of the precinct. He scratched at the scar on the bridge of his nose. “Can’t you wait until tomorrow? You’ve been working since five.” 

Nines ignored him and keyed his way through the reception. “I’m not putting this off. It’ll be easier to do it now. So, come on, before Mr. David Applegate turns in for the night. It’s time to put your interrogation skills to the test.” 

Richard was too stubborn for his own good. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was one part personality and one part brotherly rivalry. But, Gavin always thought that it was just plain stupid to jeopardize your health over trying to be the more successful brother. 

It was kinda sad in a way. He already lost and yet he still tried. But maybe Gavin just didn’t understand this relationship—perhaps never would. Humans were complicated and still, after all these months, Gavin had not quite figured out how Nines and Connor’s relationship worked. 

And hey—speaking of brothers.

“Richard!” Connor drawled and swept up to his side from behind. Though refusing to show it, Gavin flinched. The man had an uncanny ability to sneak up on people. His lapdog Hank was left trailing after him, which meant that Gavin had to brush shoulders with HK800. Gavin chanced a glance up at him and caught piercing blue eyes and a soft smile. Gavin forced himself to remain neutral, but Hank could probably read his stress levels rising quickly in his presence. 

Connor tightened his grip on Richard’s shoulder. “How’s your Redford case going?”

Gavin let himself wince openly. 

They’ve had the case for two weeks and another body had turned up earlier that day—at this rate they were getting rumors of it going serial. Nines… wasn’t taking it well. They had a lead which took some finesse to get a hold on, but they did find a witness who may have seen the most recent killing. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but they were already picking up scraps so what was one more? Gavin scanned Connor’s body language. 

Shoulders dropped, smile easy, no furrowing of the eyebrows. _He didn’t know._

Back in November, Connor took whatever potshots he could get on Richard. Drinking, smoking, crawling his way under his younger brother’s skin. Everyone in the precinct had apparently been used to it for years, but then Hank came along and got him to be less self-destructive. 

It seemed someone must’ve missed the ‘new me’ memo based off the stare down Richard was giving Connor. 

Surprisingly, he didn’t seem too miffed. “Whatever.” Connor gave one last squeeze before unlatching and sticking his hands into his pockets. “Good luck interviewing your half-awake witness.” Connor, for all intents and purposes, was still Connor. Kind of a dick.

Connor swept a hand through his hair and pat Richard’s shoulder before he split off to his car. Gavin watched Hank give him a quick nod in goodbye and follow his Lieutenant. He shook his head as he watched them leave, every day it seemed like Gavin got further and further away from understanding the Anderson twins. 

Nines had already walked ahead so GV200 quickly turned back and accompanied him to his car. As soon as he climbed into the car’s passenger seat, it jerked forward and sped off out of the parking lot. _Someone_ was pissy. Although tempted to make a snarky comment about his shitty driving, Gavin thought better since he didn’t want to get thrown out while they were speeding through traffic. 

Mentally, he made a note to work with Nines on not letting Connor’s bullshit affect his mood. Something to bring up when he felt less like climbing into the backseat and letting Richard’s smooth driving lure himself back into stasis. But soon they stopped and Gavin climbed out before Richard’s steel aura suffocated him. 

Despite the gravel driveway, everything else about the house seemed modern. Well, early 2020’s modern anyway. The porch step was empty, not even a welcome mat was put down. The lack of light coming out from the windows painted everything in grey tones. It was eerie, way too quiet for a house that was seemingly designed with Stepford intent. Gavin looked up to the windows on the second floor. On the far right window, with a brownish sill, was a faint flicker of light. _A candle?_ Did Applegate forget to pay for electricity? 

The file Gavin glanced at in the car was written in a way that suggested the house was lived in. 

Richard didn’t seem to care about any of those roadblocks, there was a 67% chance he was still keyed up from his interaction with Connor. He knocked on the door sharply. “Detroit police, open up.” 

A bird squawked in the distance. 

Jaw tight, Gavin grunted, “We should come here tomorrow, Detective. There’s no one awake.” 

Richard threw a glare at him and raised a fist to knock again. “Detroit pol—” 

He knocked and the door creaked open. _Yeah no, not creepy at all._

Gavin ran scan after scan, sweeping every last chair covered in plastic and floorboard for danger and got nothing back. If he was still a machine he wouldn’t feel this anxiety copycat, but unfortunately, he wasn’t. Between the two of them, Richard might as well have been a robot for how little this place was affecting him. To a certain extent at least. Nines may have not shown his fears but dilated pupils and increased sweat production ratted him out.

_Detective Anderson’s stress level 45% and rising._ Gavin’s own stress levels climbed to 66%. 

Cautiously, Richard drew his gun from his holster. He looked over his shoulder at Gavin. “Stay behind me.” 

Knowing better than to argue, Gavin slid behind Nines and waited for him to move. Together as a unit, they walked through the empty house clearing rooms one at a time. The entire time Gavin scanned for any sign of life. Other than decaying furniture, it seemed no one was there.

Mudroom. Clear. Dining room. Clear. Living room. Clear.

They eased their way into the kitchen. One step right after another. 

Just as it was looking like they might have overreacted, gunshots cut through the air and crashed into the wooden cabinets to their left. Moving as fast as he could, Gavin pushed Richard forward and behind the granite island. The bullet holes tore apart the cabinets and made them look like Swiss cheese, splinters fell to the floor and into a dark pool.

The wooden chips were instantly stained red. 

Gavin’s body jolted and he scrambled away from the blood. He laid ramrod straight against the counter and quickly hunted for the source. Beside the growing pool, Richard gasped. Oh. Fighting his initial reaction to get away from the blood, Gavin adjusted onto his knees, crawled over, and searched his body for the wound. Nines clutched a blooming patch of red just below the right side of his ribcage. GV200 examined the wound and his scans filled in the rest. Based on his position before and the angle, the bullet had cleanly sliced flesh and his liver, cutting completely through to the other side. 

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!_

Nines kept gasping like he was drowning. One hand was helping Gavin cover his wound, but it was doing so little. Gavin couldn’t get a good look at the exit wound, but it was safe to say that it was the source to most of the blood that was soaking everything. His other hand clung onto Gavin’s uniform jacket. Blood already painted the sleek black and white style to sickly shades of maroon. The GV200 insignia on his right breast and blue armband were slowly fading underneath the color. 

Richard’s hand kept slipping. The action was so desperate and so unlike how he normally acted, the image burned into his processors like a CyberLife employee coded it in. His hand even reached all the way up to Gavin’s neck as if to pull him closer, only to slide off. Nines whined in defeat. 

_Chances of survival: 12% and dropping._

Nines looked terrified, it was an expression that Gavin had seen before only when humans were dying. The memories of working for the Chicago mob flooded back to him. The look of pure abject terror was something he never wanted to see again, let alone on the only person out there that actually cared about him. Richard almost seemed blinded for how he kept looking around with glossy eyes. He continued heaving, but gradually the sobs weakened. 

“Nines, come on.” Gavin’s voice cracked with static, he knew that it was a result of the high stress levels he had. “Don’t—don’t go.” In the back of his mind, his system faintly warned him that an officer was down and he needed to call for backup and an ambulance. Or rather, he needed to call a hearse. 

The blood flow trickled. One second Richard gasped, looking for something that Gavin couldn’t see, the next he stilled.

And everything went quiet.

The acrid scent of copper and iron snuffed out every other smell. His audio processor picked up the slow dripping sound of blood leaving the body before him and in the distance, rising to a crescendo, footsteps. Someone stepped across the slippery tile towards him. A shadow fell over him and Gavin, desperate to examine something other than a dead body, looked up to see eyes so brown they appeared black. 

Born May 30th, 1997, no current occupation, arrested for aggravated assault and served four months. Implicated in many drug-related crimes since then, a warrant for arrest issued five years and 2 months ago. 

Name, Rico Angelo Brivio.

Gavin gazed lamely down at his bloodied boots. He heard a click. Then a gunshot. 

\-----

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.” 

Something was wrong. 

Something was very _very_ wrong.


	2. April 17th, 9:34 pm, 2027

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Was_ he dead? By all forms of logic this couldn’t be happening. Sometimes shut down androids could be brought back to life, but this wasn’t anything like what he was expecting. Nines should be dead. _Hell,_ Gavin could still clearly access the memory. He could find the message that told him of Richard “Nines” Anderson’s time of death.

His LED flashed yellow twice then turned red. 

_What the fuck._

“Hello?” He looked up to a very tired, but alive looking Richard who was fanning himself with the file. “Come on, I got an address on Applegate.”

_His name’s not Applegate._

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot.

In lieu of waiting for a response, Richard sighed and said, “Well, you can come with me if you want. I’m not waiting on you.” He turned and paced his way out of the precinct. It took a second before Gavin clambered out of the chair and ran to his side. _Damn his long legs._

Was this deja vu? Was this android heaven? Hell? Gavin wanted to ask what was going on and why Nines was alive, but he had a feeling he was alone on this. 

He… he had died, hadn’t he? Had that been a dream? He was only alive for a little under a year now, why’d his first dream have to be a nightmare?

Just like before, Connor jumped up to his brother’s side and shouted, “Richard!” and nudged Gavin behind. Hank started to match his step again. Gavin chanced a glance up at him and caught piercing blue eyes and a soft smile. His stress level was already high to start and it was not getting better. Hank recognized the high levels, because of course he did the bastard was always scanning, and dropped his smile. 

Connor, oblivious to the equivalent of an android panic attack Gavin was having behind him, asked, “How’s your Redford case going?”

_Was_ he dead? By all forms of logic this couldn’t be happening. Sometimes shut down androids could be brought back to life, but this wasn’t anything like what he was expecting. Nines should be dead. _Hell,_ Gavin could still clearly access the memory. He could find the message that told him of Richard “Nines” Anderson’s time of death. 

Perhaps he should lay out the facts just to calm himself down. 

Applegate was an alias. It was April 17th, 8:43 pm, 2037. It was partly cloudy with a 46% chance of rain. Nines showed signs of sleep exhaustion. He needed a full stasis for a desperately needed update. Rico Brivio had a warrant out for his arrest and he was a witness to their case. 

Nines died in Rico’s house. Gavin died too. 

Maybe this was a second chance. Another attempt by the universe. Gavin never put thought into higher beings—guess he would have to follow Ra9 now or whatever. 

That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t grateful for the opportunity at another chance, but just the prospect of potentially reliving through _that._ Well. The unwanted memory came crashing in like the tide. The smell of sulfur and iron came back to him along with the memory of blood getting all over his hands and jacket and the tile floor— 

The car door slammed shut, interrupting his train of thought. Richard’s car raced forward and practically flew out of the parking lot. 

Right. Focus, if he had one more shot and he had to make it count. So far everything was the same. There was variation when Gavin didn’t reply when Nines woke him up. But, that was so far it. Connor still slid in. Still asked about their case. Hank still creeped him the fuck out. Nines still got pissed off and demonstrated aggressive driving. 

Things at the Applegate house weren’t going to be any different without his intervention. 

Now was not the time to lose focus, he had to figure out where the gunshots came from and how to prevent their deaths. He was made in part to stop criminals, out of all the times to do his job, it was now. 

The mental crisis made the drive seem short and before long, the car came to a stop. Richard stepped out onto the gravel driveway before Gavin realized what was happening. He slowly got out and followed him up the concrete steps. It was odd, a part of him wanted to keep everything the same, even with the small stuff. Last time he got out soon as the car stopped, would not doing that impact how this was going to go?

He should work to minimize independent variables as much as possible until the shooting started. 

Richard knocked on the door sharply. “Detroit police, open up!”

A bird squawked in the distance.

Gavin looked up at the window with the rotting sill. The light was still up there flickering. 

Suddenly, it occurred to him that he might want to warn Nines. That wouldn’t exactly be minimizing variables, but Gavin knew not telling him like last time would only produce the same result. He had to change their collision course sometime. With luck, Gavin could fix their mess and move on with the knowledge of how Richard looked like when he was shot. It could be left behind him overtime like all the other death’s he’d witnessed. Nines could live in ignorance, which would be for the best. 

Humans didn’t deal with death very well. 

“Detroit pol—” Nines barely tapped the door and it creaked open. Gavin tugged on his sleeve and met Richard’s eyes. His stress levels had risen to 45%, but he looked at GV200 with intent. _He’s terrified, but he’s trying not to show it._

Gavin pointed to the window and watched recognition pass over Nines face. Richard’s stress levels actually _dropped_ and he raised a smirk. Looking back at Gavin with a sly smile, he nodded then whispered, “Stay behind me.” Fuck he’d know, but Gavin didn’t? Intrigued to where this was going Gavin fell behind Richard as he took the lead inside the house. 

An alert showed up on his HUD; _Detective Anderson’s stress levels have receded to 25%._

Paired with the information from his previous scan of the house, Gavin was able to scope out new paths that Rico Brivio could’ve taken to attack them. Step by step, they made their way through the first floor. Just past the staircase, the room opened up into the kitchen. Gavin’s interface predicted that the rounds could’ve come from the area unexplored past the kitchen. If they were on the other side of the house then that complicated things. 

Brivio may have been the one to come in and deliver the final shot, but after clinically reviewing the bullet pattern and dutifully ignoring the rest of the memory, Gavin concluded that multiple men must have fired at them. Which begged the question of _why_ there were so many shooters here. Nines slowed his walk as they approached the staircase. His system calculated 83% likeliness that they would get shot again if they advanced towards the kitchen, with a 10% margin of error. Gavin looked up towards their alternative. 

The unknown in their case may actually work better than the high chances of getting into an unwinnable shootout just around the corner. 

The steps were made of oak wood, with a faded cerulean carpet down the middle. There were eleven steps until the stairs reached a platform then turned right. He couldn’t even tell if there was even light left up there. If they started to ascend, then the old wood may give away their position and ruin the element of surprise. Furthermore, it could be loud enough for the men past the kitchen to get wind of their position. For all intents and purposes, even by an android’s standard, Nines was quiet and it was safe to assume they were so far undetected. If they traveled up, they could be trapped by the party downstairs and upstairs. 

They could move back, get somewhere quiet so Gavin could send a message for proper backup. But would Nines accept that? Gavin couldn’t articulate to him that they should get the hell out of there and for the exact reasons. Knowing Richard, he would just ignore Gavin and move on like a thousand times before. 

In short, they were fucked.

The whole, ‘minimizing independent variables’ turned from taking the cautious approach to being the worst thing he could do. He _had_ to change the future. 

Gavin looked back to Nines who was also giving a thoughtful glare up the stairs. Though for Richard the solution was much easier. Expecting GV200 to blindly follow him into a trap, Nines started to continue his step into the kitchen. 

_Shit!_ Things were just gonna end up the same. He refused to let his one chance at saving his partner get wasted just because Gavin freaked out and let everything remain on course. 

Before Richard could get much further Gavin reached out and utilized his android strength to its full potential. Even though his partner had a full head over him, Gavin had the ability to calculate what action he could take that would maximize the most force. A GV200 ran on thirium and momentum. 

Maybe the max amount of pull wasn’t great for a delicate situation like this though. Detective Anderson stumbled back and luckily Gavin was close enough to catch him before he made more noise. 

His arms circled around Richard’s torso and something within Gavin lagged. Nines’ head thumped onto his shoulder and Gavin had to quickly get over his mental hiccup and cover Richard’s mouth before he could whisper a bitter remark. So instead, Richard _glared._ Terrified, Gavin met his steel-blue eyes and felt the thirium around his pump suddenly flush out to the rest of his body. 

As much as he liked and enjoyed how Detective Anderson gave him shit, Richard still had the ability to intimidate him into doing shit. It was a fear that was created early on in their partnership, one rightfully earned. 

Gradually, with his system still registering false errors, Gavin let up on his hold. Richard shrugged him off and stood up to his full height. Wincing, he mouthed, _Sorry._ and then pointed up towards the stairs. 

It was even a gamble if Richard would actually listen to his advice. When they first met, more often than not Nines would simply ignore Gavin. It went like that until gradually Gavin started to prove his worth, because like hell would he let some asshole Detective ruin his one shot at being a proper police officer. 

Like Gavin, Nines didn’t trust people. Not even his own brother at times. 

But, hey, Gavin wasn’t human. So whenever Richard did decide to put his trust into the android, Gavin did what he could to prove that he wasn’t making a mistake. 

He hoped, in the event of an attack, Nines could forgive him.

Richard reluctantly gave a curt nod and raised his gun. Gavin stepped behind him, this time getting only inches away from his body. The phantom errors came back. Frustrated that they were clogging up his CPU he dismissed them all. He also sent out a short automated message requesting backup for their location. Well, if he could convince Richard to move to the stairs, maybe he could get them to leave. But Nines marched forward, locking in their fate. 

The first step creaked because of course it did. 

Even with the carpet muting the majority of the sound, to Gavin it was enough to cause alarm. An alert warned him that his stress levels were jumping back up from a startling 20% to 70%. He wondered what scared him more; the fact his stress levels were that low before and he didn’t even notice it or that with each step they took it rose by 5%. 

Gavin forced himself to take simulated breaths in order to cool off his selectively overheated system. 

They eased their way up the stairs. One step right after another.

They were nearly at the top when two gunshots exploded out from the dark. Both bullets hit plaster near the side of the wall Nines was hugging. Both of them fell back down onto the middle landing. Gavin turned to lead the way back down to safety until he met the barrel of a gun. 

He was locked in place, his system begging him not to move and to defuse the situation as fast as possible. Holding up his hands he gauged his options. He could plead with Brivio for his and Richard’s lives, but each potential outcome calculated fell apart, every likely combination to get out of this alive failed. It was too late, if he wanted to save their lives the only option was to not enter the house in the first place. 

Behind him he heard a few more gunshots, one very close to his side and he flinched. 

Then he heard a splatter.

Something falling to the floor, dragging on the wall before hitting the wood platform. 

Gavin willed himself not to look behind him and down at the sudden pressure at his ankles. He couldn’t face the expression that would be on Richard’s face. He had seen it before, he did not want to see it again. His cruel and unhelpful mind matched the audio and gave him a prediction of where the kill shot landed. 

_78% likely Detective Anderson was shot in the forehead._

So what would be _left_ of Richard’s face. 

Like any coward would, Gavin closed his eyes as a few thirium laced tears cascaded over his cheeks. 

The rest of his system tried to catch up with warning reports, but they were all cut short. 

He heard a click. Then a gunshot.

\-----

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”


	3. April 17th, 9:10 pm, 2027

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Nines.”_ His voice was fuzzed up with static. 
> 
> Anything left of goodwill in Richard’s voice disappeared. “Hmm.” Now he just looked bored. 
> 
> Gavin stood up too quickly and his chair rolled away from his desk. “You can’t—you _shouldn’t_ go. Just, please, just go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I nearly forgot to update this fic today whoops. 
> 
> Anyway we got a shorter chapter today.

Gavin never thought it would be so sweet to hear the deep alluring sounds of Richard’s voice again. No matter how sleep deprived and prissy with annoyance it was. 

His LED flashed yellow. 

Gavin wasn’t given a ‘second chance’. He was either having the world’s worst and first android nightmare, his processors were fucking up, or maybe he was stuck in a simulation. 

If he was stuck in a nightmare there should be some sign that he had the ability to wake up, right? He’d never dreamed before so he was a bit out of his element on the science and rules when it came to them. Gavin reluctantly dismissed the first possibility. It all felt real. Down to the bitterly familiar sight and smell of blood. Even the sound of blood hitting a wall was way too real.

His CPU going haywire didn’t answer anything. If that were happening, he should be getting red flags all over the place. 

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot. Gavin grinded his porcelain teeth. Well, except that. But a lagging system wouldn’t cause all of this.

That left the simulation theory, which had the same problems as the nightmare. It was just too far fetched—there’s too many details that even CyberLife couldn’t replicate. 

There was one last theory.

On February 2nd Gavin, like nearly every other day, sneaked into Richard’s apartment via his small balcony. Over time, Nines started to leave it unlocked so the android could come and go as he pleased. But when he visited that day he entered to find Richard starting a movie. Nines was in a good mood that night and told him about a little tradition he had, one that he claimed wasn’t unique. But, it didn’t really matter. When Gavin managed to get Nines talking about something he loved, it always ended with a plethora of new information. Intrigued, but pretending he wasn’t, Gavin plopped down at the other end of his black leather couch and watched the movie Groundhog Day with him. Because it was important to Nines.

But that movie was _fiction._

Unfortunately, Gavin didn’t see a clearer explanation. He was stuck in a time loop. 

Or Hell. 

“Hello?” He looked up to a very tired but alive looking Richard who was fanning himself with the file. “Come on, I got an address on Applegate.”

He failed to plead when Brivio shot him in the last loop. He wasn’t gonna let that mistake kill them both again. 

_“Nines.”_ His voice was fuzzed up with static. 

Anything left of goodwill in Richard’s voice disappeared. “Hmm.” Now he just looked bored. 

Gavin stood up too quickly and his chair rolled away from his desk. “You can’t—you _shouldn’t_ go. Just, please, just go home.”

Richard stopped fanning himself and raised an eyebrow. “Gavin I get that you want to waste time and finally get that update downloaded, but that’s your own fault for not getting it done when you had the chance.” Nines took a step away and adjusted his collar. “You can come with me if you want. I’m not waiting on you.” 

Then he walked away and Gavin ran to keep up with his stride. He had to figure out a way to break the loop. He had to figure out a way to stop him from entering the house. “Richard please. I—this can all wait until tomorrow. You haven’t slept in awhile—”

They reached the precinct’s doors. Nines grabbed a handle, but didn’t go outside. He simply turned and stared Gavin down. Richard’s fuse ran short and was done with everyone’s shit, including Gavin’s. _“I’m fine,”_ he gritted through clenched teeth. “I’ve been through longer shifts, besides. What do you care? You may be deviant, but you’re still an annoying, coddling android at heart. Quit trying to fucking take care of me.” 

He then exited and slammed the door shut behind him. 

Nines was famous for his short temper and infamous for his need to be independent. The biting remark caused the thirium in certain parts of his body to shift and Gavin was momentarily thrown off kilter. 

He clenched his fists and felt a familiar emotion bubble inside him; _rage._ Gavin stomped out of the parking lot and followed Richard to his car. Behind him he heard the hushed tones of Connor and Hank. If he was human he wouldn’t have picked up on the snide, “Jesus, what’s up his ass?” Connor murmured to Hank. Gavin wasn’t sure who Lieutenant Anderson was referring to, but it might as well have been both of them. 

“Hey! Asshole!” Gavin rounded around the front and made eye contact with Richard as he made his way to the passenger side. _I dare you to hit me, motherfucker._ Once the car door shut, Nines sped off onto the street. “I am not some AX400 you can push around. I’m not trying to take care of you.” _He was. He totally was. Every chance he got he would trick the Detective into eating better or go to bed earlier. Gavin was starting to get creative with how he went about it._ “You don’t own me, _dick.”_ He spat out his name with venom. 

Nines cut him off with a cruel laugh. “I don’t. But you can not fucking tell me what to do, like _you do._ ” Richard hazarded a glare over at him. “Gavin I’m starting to think that update is needed for you, I should just drop you off.” Nines then turned a corner too hard, causing Gavin to lean harshly against the passenger window. 

Gavin felt like taking that stupid fucking Montac black pen that Richard always used at work and snapping it in half in front of him. “Don’t turn this around on _me._ ” Gavin jammed a finger into his rounded shoulder. “I’m sorry for being so casuistic to save your dumbass, just don’t _phucking_ go to Brivio’s goddamn house!” His voice cracked with static and panic, his system warning him that his core temperature was rising to dangerous levels. 

“Who—Brivio? You know what, fuck it. Why the hell do you care that I go to _Applegate’s_ house?”

_“Because—!”_

The argument was forced to a halting stop. So was the car. 

It took only milliseconds for Gavin’s system to report the cause of the crash—distraction—before his CPU glitched. While his systems were quickly shutting down, Gavin still felt that familiar wave of guilt wash over him. The feeling had been present both times Richard had died. But now he realized that it didn’t just stem from getting Detective Anderson hurt again, it came in part from the possibility of another death in a car crash. Gavin never mentioned it once he found out about the fate of the Anderson twins birth parents. 

Things eventually begun to clear up so he could see, hear, and think again. Automatically he was forced into low power mode and biocompents were tested to see if they were still online. 

He gained back complete consciousness just to see everything tinted in red and a large timer loom in front of him. 

_BIOCOMPONENTS #2886, #9474, #8456w, #9782f DAMAGED._  
THIRIUM PUMP REGULATOR CRITICALLY DAMAGED   
SHUTDOWN IMMINENT 

_00:01:21 REMAIN_

One of his optical units wasn’t functional. Both of his legs weren’t moving. An additional alert told him that he was losing thirium too quickly. Sure enough he looked past the giant warning sign and took note of shattered glass covering everything and sections of car that just, _weren’t bent right._ There was thirium splashed around like a Pollock painting and to Gavin’s horror, it was purple with blood. 

“Gavin…”

He jolted and willing himself not to be a coward this time, Gavin faced his fear. To his left, partially crushed under the car, was Richard. His face, bruised and broken, was covered in blood. Some of it gushed out of his nose, dribbling down to his chin, staining his teeth red. Glass sliced nasty cuts across his face. Some shards even remained stuck in the flesh. Gavin couldn’t imagine how painful it would be to say the syllables that formed his name. 

The holes and gashes on his body also leaked blood, but Gavin kept his fading vision on Richard’s face. His arm, through broken and bruised moved towards him. It couldn’t get far, so his fingers stretched out. 

His own voice came out broken and garbled, “Nines.” He was lucky to get out his response before his CPU shut off his voice to preserve power. It wouldn’t matter anyway, both of them had seconds. 

Gavin could pinpoint the exact time the light left his eyes. It was not two seconds later when GV200 met the same cause of death; exsanguination. 

\-----

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”


	4. April 17th, 10:32 pm, 2027

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin scratched at the broken cassis on the bridge of his nose and tried to bring back up his memory of the movie. He cursed himself for not paying much attention to the film, Richard’s cat was too good of a distraction. He did faintly remember that Phil had to figure out something about his life. By movie logic he had to stop being an asshole and fall head over heels with the lead actress. 
> 
> Well. He could do one of those things.

The guilt was still there. 

The other times it was like everything was reset. All systems back to normal. But this time the guilt was still _fucking there._

He— 

He felt— 

“Hello?” 

Gavin snapped his head up towards the sweet sound and his LED went rutilant. Richard was still alive and his face was back to looking sculpted, with the few moles that somehow made him look like a greek god. His eyes weren’t glossy and dull, they were icy and sharp. 

Gavin wanted to cry. He wasn’t sure if it was out of relief or grief. 

_System error. Saline solution release is advisable. Deploy?_

_No._

_No, no, no, no,_ “No.” 

His voice cracked. His CPU forced him into simulated breathing in order to cool his rapidly heating biocomponents. Right on cue, his system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot. Gavin’s stress levels skyrocketed from to a lazy 10% to 88%. His LED settled on red and started to rapidly flash. He was shaking. Androids didn’t shake. 

The soft fanning noises somewhere around him gradually stopped. “Are you…” Richard furrowed his eyebrows. His eyes were alert with worry. Gavin was too preoccupied to confuse the look with pity. “Should I—” Nines threw a look to his brother and his own partner, both of which were trying to subtly watch them. Turning back, Richard seemed to make his decision and closed his jaw to stop himself from finishing _that_ question. He knew Gavin’s thoughts on Hank. 

Richard settled his focus back on Gavin and bit his lip. The action, soaked in familiarity, caught his attention and the sudden focus brought his stress levels down slightly. “Can I get you anything?” Nines placated. 

Gavin wasn’t sure what to do. He felt… hopeless. And guilty, still _fucking guilty._

Deviancy was such a pain in the ass. He wanted to take it all back, he wanted to apologize to Richard, but he couldn’t. The person he was supposed to say _I’m sorry_ to was dead and back again with no memory of the incident. How could he get out of this clean? 

Finding a way to break the loop may just backfire and he could end up with Nines dead and himself alive. He was revolted at that prospect—that wasn’t how he wanted to be alive. With the only person on the planet who could speak Asshole dead and by his own hand. 

Richard, originally waiting for a reply, shifted uncomfortably in place. It made sense, an android having a crisis and crying in front of him was pretty new. Gavin knew if their positions were switched, he’d probably do the same thing. “I’ll get you some… blue blood.” 

He then stepped away and left slowly for the break room. Richard broke eye contact and kept his eyes wandering around, _lost_ , until he turned the corner. 

Gavin’s system alerted him that his forced simulated breathing protocol had shut itself off. The function wasn’t deemed necessary and thus when it wasn’t cooling down his systems it simply turned off. Personally he always thought that the program was useless besides its cooling properties. Recently though, he decided to keep the function running. 

For now, Gavin kept the function away. He didn’t want to play human to gather sympathy, he wanted his skills as an android to prove his worth. It was just shitty that no one cared about an android. To prevent more errors, he catalogued and reviewed everything he knew. 

It was April 17th, 8:46 pm, 2037. It was partly cloudy with a 46% chance of rain. Richard showed signs of sleep exhaustion. 

In every loop so far, Nines walked out of the precinct in a haughty rush. But this time, it took Gavin to visually have a crisis in order to get him to slow down. He had to admit, it was sorta scary to watch stoic Detective Anderson behave with such kindness. It wasn’t the first time Gavin witnessed the soft side of Nines, but it was certainly startling to watch it happen when he had seen the other ways their conversation could’ve gone. Especially considering the last loop ended with a bitter spat. 

Gavin wiped water, salt, and thirium away from his cheeks. He was sick of dying. And he was sick of watching Richard die each time before he did. 

Over at the other end of the bullroom, Gavin saw Connor and Hank chatting amicably as they left for the night. 

Groundhog Day rules oddly gave him the most clarity. After all, Bill Murray’s character got out of his loop, maybe there was hope for himself. It wasn’t like he had many options anyways, the explanation that comforted him was the best chance he had. 

Gavin scratched at the broken cassis on the bridge of his nose and tried to bring back up his memory of the movie. He cursed himself for not paying much attention to the film, Richard’s cat was too good of a distraction. He did faintly remember that Phil had to figure out something about his life. By movie logic he had to stop being an asshole and fall head over heels with the lead actress. 

Well. He could do one of those things. 

Gavin was stuck in an unusual situation, which called for a different approach than the movie. Maybe he had to solve their case? Their only strong lead though was Rico Brivio and attempting to contact him just left them both dead. 

Twice. 

He needed more information. When Gavin scanned anyone it only showed superficial details. Name, date of birth, and only part of their criminal record. He’ll need access to a terminal to find out more about Rico Brivio’s crimes. 

A proximity alert popped up and he spotted Nines hold out a bag of thirium towards him. Thoroughly embarrassed that he let his asshole facade fall, Gavin kept his eyes down at his desk and took the bag. He watched Nines pull his hands into his camel overcoat and half lean half sit on top of his desk. Gavin could tell that Richard was trying to meet his eyes, he was doing that thing where he’d tilt his head down and widen his eyes a fraction. He saw Connor once do the same thing in an interrogation, he thought that for both it was more of a purposeful tatic. The reality, Gavin realized, is that it was just _them._

Sometimes people weren’t always trying to one up him or ruin him. 

“I know you probably don’t wanna talk about it and that’s fine.” Richard paused and waited a beat. Gavin could feel Nines mentally pleading _What the fuck happened there._ “But you should go home and get that update done.”

_You’re one to talk,_ Gavin thought bitterly. He had to play his cards right here, under no circumstances could their carefully created ecosystem fall apart now. “You should head home too, I can read you y’know. I can tell you’re tired.”

Nines hummed. 

Gavin thumbed the bag and debated if it was worth drinking. The tone alone told him that Richard was most likely just gonna head to Brivio’s house anyway. “Nines… If you are going, just. Stay safe, okay?” 

“Don’t worry,” Fed up, Gavin tore the cap off and licked at the spillover before downing half of it. “We’ll do it tomorrow.” Nines pushed off from his desk and gave him a small pat on the shoulder as he sauntered out the precinct. Languidly, Gavin gazed up and watched as he left. Just before he turned the corner, Richard looked back at him. 

With all his experience with human expression and emotion, Gavin couldn’t pinpoint what Nines felt then. There was only a sign of slightly raised stress levels. 

Huh.

Gavin leaned back into his chair, propped his feet on his desk and drank the rest of the thirium. 

His levels before weren’t low, but topping off his glass so to speak seemed to help settle down his systems. Biocomponents were designed for all sorts of stress, but certainly not the kind Gavin was dealing with. His stress levels were already nearly on the way back to normal levels, but Gavin couldn’t wait for everything to get better. He had a sense that time was against him.

Gavin sat up in his chair, rolled closer to his desk, and turned his terminal back on. The sooner he solved this case, the sooner all of this would be over.

-

It didn’t take long to find Rico Brivio’s rap sheet. 

Only a rough description was available for his appearance and there was only one shotty picture attached to the file. The rest was what he already knew. Born May 30th, 1997, no current occupation, arrested for aggravated assault and served four months. Implicated in many drug-related crimes since then, a warrant for arrest issued five years and 2 months ago. 

Though what was new, were details involving drug trafficking tacked onto the bottom of the report like it was meant to be overlooked. 

Hmm. If they had stumbled into a drug ring on accident then things would get much harder to deal with. Gavin searched Brivio’s name with cases connected with the Narcotics division, he got one hit back. 

_Classified report. Special clearance needed. Contact Sergeant Iris Eames, Lieutenant Walter Stabler, or Lieutenant Connor Anderson._

Fuck.

Connor and his coin operated detective already left half an hour ago. There wasn’t a chance in hell to drag them back now. The Sergeant and the other Lieutenant were both higher ups in the Red Ice division and Connor, though he left, was influential for that division. It was practically how he got to his rank.

Although he’d much rather go through Eames and Stabler, getting them to respond to his request had worse chances than simply asking the neurotic Lieutenant. 

Perhaps if he was _human_ he could garner some attention from the people he worked with, maybe if he was an _actual respected detective then—_

Gavin disconnected from his terminal. 

He hated to do it, but sometimes self created objectives were an excellent way to stay on track. If he was in the mood to obey of course.

→ Look into the ‘David Applegate’ house.

Pushing away everything else in his mind, he reconnected and delved into as much as he could about the house. Like with Brivio, he didn’t get much additional information. The files, which Nines took with him home for some reason, held much of the same stuff. With the strong drug connection Brivio had, the house could have been a place to keep his drugs until he sold them. But when Gavin ran his scans during the first two loops he found nothing to suggest red ice underneath the floorboards.

There _was_ a lot of ammunition. And by Gavin’s calculations there were a lot of men for such a quiet and seemingly empty house. He concluded the most likely outcome, a safehouse for drug trafficking. Somewhere to hide when the main building got too much heat. 

Gavin’s epiphanies weren’t solid. He would have to convince Connor in the morning to give him Rico Brivio’s Narcotics file. 

_Incoming call from Officer Tina Chen. [Relation to personal cell: Tina-saurus].  
Accept?_

Excellent, a distraction. Tina tended to work later shifts, so a call from her wasn’t all that surprising. When he first worked for the DPD, Gavin worked on cases through the night and would come across her. When Nines left for the night Gavin watched him talk with Tina as she took his place. At the time, it was startling to know that a person as stuck up as him could have a _friend_ here. 

_→ Accept._

His LED started to flash yellow as he connected to the call. At first all he heard was static and the sound of a police siren. Gavin pulled away from his terminal. 

“Gavin! Where the hell are you.” Her voice wavered through the receiver. 

He sat up and kicked his feet up on the desk, “Well I’m—”

“Know what, it doesn’t matter.” _Respiration higher than normal. Panic attack likely._ “J-Just. I’m sending you a-an address, it’s Richard. I was responding to a call and it sounds bad.” 

A second later the address popped up on his HUD and he blanched. 

Gavin scrambled out of his chair and ran as fast as he could out of the precinct. The receptionist, Eve, called out to him as he jumped through the gates, but he paid her no mind.  
In this case it was a good thing not to be human. Gavin didn’t have to put up with the time waste a human body brought when it came to running. 

“Tina,” he huffed, “where are you right now?”

“I’m already here,” he heard a car door open and the sound of gravel crunching, “please hurry Gavin.” She opened her mouth to continue, but the crack of two gunshots filled the air. There was more rustling on the other end before the call was abruptly dropped. 

Gavin worked his body harder than ever. His thiruim pump strained under the pressure and usage and his navigation systems kicked into high gear. The GV200’s were made for chase, in that regard his system was unmatched. And he was needed now more than ever. As he took shortcuts, avoided pedestrians, and jumped over car hoods, he sent an alert to the closest hospital to the Applegate house. Tina may have already done the same, but it was best to cover all of his bases. 

A cruel part of him knew it wouldn’t matter. 

Inevitably, his thoughts turned towards down the path he didn’t want to go down. He wanted to drag his heels and stick his head in the dirt than try to explain— 

He forced his system to work harder, stressing every last wire and plug in his body. Assuring Officer Chen’s and Detective Anderson’s safety was the highest priority, he couldn’t let his deviant mind ruin his mission now. 

But his triage protocol couldn’t stop the thought from nearly crashing his system on an already strained and unupdated body. 

Nines _lied_ to him. 

Gavin had never known Richard as a liar, in every way he was brutally honest. He didn’t like Gavin when they first met and wasn’t afraid of telling him so. He despised Hank, though he hasn’t said a bad word about him in three weeks. He was the only one in the entire precinct who called out Captain Fowler on his bullshit. _Sure_ it usually always garnered another note on his disciplinary file, but if Fowler quietly changed what he was doing, no one said anything.

Richard deserved to be a Captain.

Richard did not deserve to die again in that house. _Alone._

Gavin hated that Nines felt like he needed to lie to him, but it wasn’t hard to guess why. Unlike that waste of space Hank, Gavin was pretty good at discerning human behavior. Waking up in a panicked frenzy would, and did, get Nines to pity him. He was trying to protect— _ease_ Gavin. 

His own role in causing Nines to lie didn’t help either, _“Nines… If you are going, just. Stay safe, okay?”_ Gavin practically guilt-tripped him into lying 4.31 seconds later. 

Before he could analyze their interaction further the Applegate house came into view. Tina’s car was sitting idle in the driveway, waiting for its owner who would never return. 

It was quiet. Just as quiet when him and Nines visited the house twice before. Gavin looked up at the window with the rotting sill. No light. Gravel crunching under his boots, Gavin approached the bare porch step. The wooden door was already wide open. A bird squawked in the distance. 

His advanced audio processors picked up commands from inside. 

Even from his view from the doorway he could see a blood splatter down the hall. There wasn’t any reason to enter, in fact his system told him exactly what to do. 

→ Secure a safe location. → Wait for the authorities to arrive. → Assure no one escapes. 

Instead, Gavin walked in without hesitance and ignored the internal alarms. 

He got exactly eleven steps in before someone yelled. The people in the room were all speaking and moving around, but Gavin tuned out their voices. A familiar face stepped up from the crowd of criminals that were gathering weapons. Each of their faces popped up an alert telling of their grievances. In the corner of the room he saw two of Brivio’s henchmen drag two body bags behind a wall. One of the bags leaked and a trail of maroon followed.

Rico Angelo Brivio stood before him. 

Gavin felt rage boil inside him. He was like a pressure cooker one kick away from bursting and hurling himself at Rico. He wondered how many times he could slam his face into the dusty wood floor before one of his men shot him. Instead, Gavin made a promise.

Staring him in the eye, GV200 said, “You _will_ pay for what you’ve done.” 

The bastard before him smirked.

He heard a click. Then a gunshot. 

\-----

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”


	5. April 18th, 2:21 am, 2027

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I…” He had to start somewhere, might as well have been at the beginning. “I need you to listen to me, okay? No interruptions, no snide remarks, just _listen._ ” After avoiding his gaze for the past twenty minutes, Gavin looked up at him through shadowed eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this longer chapter! This one I think is my favorite.

There wasn’t that pit inside him, ready to swallow him whole with grief and regret. 

There was only red.

Red alerts, warning him of a sudden spike in stress levels and that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot. A red hue blanketed everything, simmering and flashing with the anger still charing his biocomponents. 

Yes, he was angry for dying again, but was more frustrated with Nines who lied to him. For some reason that little detail felt like his thirium pump was pulled out, Gavin just couldn’t get over it. 

“Hello?” He looked up to a very tired but alive looking Richard who was fanning himself with the file. “Come on, I got an address on Applegate.”

He just stared at Nines. Truthfully, Gavin had no idea what to do. Should he beg him not to go? Without the emotional guilt tripping things would just end in an argument and he did _not_ want to go down that path _again._

Two goals appeared on his UI. 

→ Keep everyone alive. → Retrieve Rico Brivio’s full file. 

A tall order, both missions requiring begging. 

Gavin stood up and glanced at Nines, challenging him to follow. He pivoted over towards Connor and Hank’s desks and stomped over. Lieutenant Anderson gathered his things, mirroring Hank, and rose from his desk, popping his back as he stretched upwards. 

“Lieutenant.” Gavin gritted out, feigning politeness. “I require a file from you.”

Connor paused midair and opened his eyes, the casual bliss broken. He sighed and swung his arms back down. Gavin never asked Connor for anything seriously. Most of the time he asked it was almost always some kind of thinly veiled joke that was enough to piss Connor and his partner off while not being enough to complain to their Captain. GV200 was constantly skating on thin ice. 

Hank, unlike Connor, had finished packing up. He simply stared at Connor and ignored Gavin who was edging closer to the Lieutenant. 

“Hmm. Yeah…” Connor rubbed at his eyelids. “I’m tired Gavin. And I don’t wanna deal with whatever bullshit you got for me at this hour.” _It was nearly nine, how was that late?_

Fighting his temper Gavin straightened his posture. “I only want access to a file. That’s it.” Languidly, Connor turned and stared him down. Another thing the Anderson twins had in common was their intimidation tactics. Though Nines had ice blue eyes and a sense of style that worked well with stare downs, Connor’s ugly rumpled clothing and soft brown eyes never carried the same message across. It was a show of respect and regardless of what Gavin felt at the moment he let Connor think he won. 

He’d almost had him.

Connor broke eye contact and picked up his belongings from his desk. Lighter, inhaler, pack of cigarettes, phone, and keys and shoved them into the pockets of his loose jacket. He then motioned to Hank. “Hank can get you what you need then. He has the same clearance as I do.”

Gavin bit back a string of profanities, “Even with a classified Narcotics file?”

_That_ got his attention. His eyes widened, “What the hell are you doing with a Narcotics case? What about your Redford case?” 

Gavin shook his head, “Potential lead. Doesn’t matter to you, I just need clearance.” 

Connor hummed and shrugged. That was one thing he had over his twin, Connor didn’t really give a shit and wouldn’t pry into unwanted conversations with a rusty crowbar. The Lieutenant motioned to Hank as he walked by his desk, “Once again, _Hank._ ” 

Without so much as a sniff or cough, Connor walked out of the precinct and Gavin chanced a glance up and caught Hank watching him leave. Once he was out of sight Hank looked down and Gavin caught piercing blue eyes and a soft smile. 

Internally he grimaced. He hated dealing with Hank, on the outside was this friendly facade that fell apart as soon as you started to really interact with him. It certainly didn’t help that Gavin had never once had a good conversation with him. By now it would be a miracle to actually get the file access without some bullshit from HK800 just to screw him over. 

Hank wasn’t overt with his hatred of Gavin. But it showed in his eyes. 

Gavin held up his hand for interface. _Let’s just get this over with._

Hank, of course, wasn’t gonna give in easily. “GV200. I realize that you want your file, but I assure you that it can wait until tomorrow. Connor is sleep deprived,” Hank then nodded over to a silent Richard at Gavin’s desk. “much like your Detective. So I really must drive him home.”

The anger from before came back with a roar. Gavin dropped his composure and hissed, “Goddamnit! Do not do this to me now Hank. You don’t even have to fucking try and give me clearance for one goddamn person and yet still you pull this ‘sleep deprived’ bullshit on me.” Gavin shoved a finger into a stoic looking HK800, “And Connor’s not your fucking kid. He’s probably already on the way home leaving your sorry ass stuck with me.” 

Hank’s LED actually started to flash _yellow._

Gavin hated Hank ever since the first time they were introduced. Everything about him was so fucking _perfect._

An HK800 was made to test blood samples on the fly to aid detectives. An GV200 was made lighter in order to chase to aid rookies. 

An HK800 was made with advanced pre-construction software that allowed them to recreate a crime scene in real time. An GV200 was made as a near copy to a PC200 with reinforced cassis to survive wear. 

An HK800 was made with the world’s largest database of microexpressions to accurately and effectively read criminals and read people for integration. An GV200 had only the base integration programs since they were meant to be silent bodyguards or rent-a-cops. 

An HK800 was made by CyberLife’s top scientists. An GV200 was made with a rehashed version of a RT600 Elijah model. 

An HK800 was made to have access to CyberLife facilities and most, if not all, known databases. An GV200 was made with a more secure memory database so secrets or information couldn’t get out as easily and could be transferred to a new body without corruption. 

Hank got it easy. He was _designed_ to be a detective. Gavin had to go through hell and back just to work with one. And Gavin still wasn’t even considered worthy of the title. 

“I’m sorry Gavin. But it’s best this waits until tomorrow.” Hank turned to leave, but Richard, from his position on Gavin’s desk, kicked away and walked to his side. 

Hank had his back turned to the pair, but instead of immediately taking off he just gazed over his shoulder and tracked Richard’s movements. Nines stood tall, “Regardless of your opinion of Gavin, _I_ need that file. And unlike Connor, I won’t be listening to any reason from you. Hand it over.” 

The pair locked into a staring contest, both waiting for the other to fold. An unstoppable force versus an immovable object. Gavin knew who would win out, Nines was stubborn as a mule and Hank had other priorities. Really it was a wait for Hank to weigh the pros and cons. Gavin stood off to the side and waited for them to finish. 

Nines, sticking up for him. Quite the rarity even nowadays. Gavin could convince Richard of his idea by pulling out every scrap of information that led to his conclusion and they would work together from there. But this was without persuading, this was purely trust. 

For once in his new life, Gavin willingly kept his mouth shut. 

Hank, with his LED shining a bright blue, broke eye contact and turned away from them. _“Fine.”_ he bit out. 

Then Hank walked towards the archive room, leaving a stunned Gavin and silent Richard. Snapping out of his stupor, Gavin followed him diligently and spared a glance up at Nines. He squinted down at him, looking peeved. Gavin quickly looked away from the silent question in his eyes and instead stared a hole into the shiny HK800 identifier on Hank’s back. No part of him wanted to even _begin_ explaining why he asked for this case.

A few minutes later, Hank rose from the cabinet he stuck his head in and held up a fat file. Gavin took it from his hands and held it close to his chest. An alert popped up on his interface, _Reports and files that are still apart of an investigation should not leave the DPD station._ He ignored it. Pretty good that Richard had just as loose morals as he did for these things. Gavin then tucked tail and scampered out of the musty evidence room, _seriously did they know how much bacteria was floating around in there?_

To cut out any chance of Richard interrogating him before he left the precinct, Gavin made a beeline towards the parking lot. Delaying the inevitable maybe, but at least he could control where his explanation took place. As Gavin exited he saw Eve, the android receptionist, diligently working away unaffected. No look of panic and alarm like when Gavin jumped the key in terminals in a previous loop. 

A moment later, Richard followed him into the parking lot. “You gonna tell me what the hell that was about?” Gavin stayed silent, gripped the files closer to his thirium pump, and slid into the passenger seat. Nines took the driver’s side, but didn’t turn the car on. He just stared Gavin down.

He stared. And stared. And stared. 

“I _want_ an explanation.”

Gavin’s LED flashed amber. Just— _how?_ How was Gavin supposed to explain why he needed this one off Narcotics case? It was completely unrelated to their whole Redford case, it was by pure chance that their one potential witness was a _fucking drug lord!_

Beside him, Richard must’ve given up or at least switched tactics, because he ignored the strobing red on Gavin’s temple and started the car. Gavin then began to panic, his stress levels climbed higher and higher and he tried to figure out a way to tell him. 

_Can’t talk while he’s driving. Don’t distract him. Don’t tell him about the time loop. Keep it easy. Keep it safe. Don’t distract him. Don’t let him know. Keeping lying about the past. **Lie to him.**_

“I don’t have all night, either tell me now or tell me when we get there.” Richard mused as he pulled out of the parking lot. They hit a street gutter as they left and Gavin bounced into curling in on himself. His breathing protocol kicked in and he was forced to regulate his temperature. An objective appeared in his HUD.

_→ Keep quiet._

One of the few commands he would follow even if it killed him. If he let his deviant self get ahead of him now they would just crash again.

Gavin was getting closer to solve this thing and his next step was cradled close to his chest. But, he’d have to let Richard know what was going on, there was just no way to avoid it. The bastard would probably lock the doors once they got there and hold him hostage until he explained why he had to stick up for his shitty android partner.

And he couldn’t _lie._ Nines would sniff it out in a second and Gavin wasn’t in the best of states to even begin a lie. Soon as they pulled up onto the Applegate house driveway Gavin would have to give in. His only option was to get clean and hopefully Nines wouldn’t just call him insane and leave towards the house to interrogate.

_Shit._ Gavin didn’t consider that as a possibility. He should’ve told him everything while they were still at the DPD.

They were both stubborn, but Nines was more steadfast than he was. It was against his nature, but Gavin had to beg his way out of this. He could only hope that Richard didn’t see him as a crazy, malfunctioning, android afterwards.

Gavin grabbed at his manually fashioned hood and flipped it over his head.

For the rest of the winding drive there wasn’t a word spoken between the two. Besides the sound of traffic outside, their breathing, and the whirrs of Gavin’s thirium pump working too hard, it was completely quiet. Eventually the sounds of asphalt turned into the haunting sound of gravel being driven over.

Richard shifted it into park, turned the car off, and went back to staring at Gavin. Instead of waiting all night for GV200 to gather his courage, Nines got around that roadblock by reaching for the files. He snapped his arm forward, right under Gavin’s chin to pull it out. Acting on instinct, Gavin held the case closer to his chest.

When grabbing it didn’t work, Richard huffed. “You’re being ridiculous. I have no idea _why_ this casefile is important, but I decided to trust you, because you seem to think it is.” Nines tilted his head, “I would assume you would trust me too.”

_You lied to me._

Gavin shook his head. That was in the last loop, there was no use in wasting processing power on what happened _then_ (now?) when his current mission still hovered above the car’s dashboard.

→ Keep everyone alive. 

“I…” He had to start somewhere, might as well have been at the beginning. “I need you to listen to me, okay? No interruptions, no snide remarks, just _listen._ ” After avoiding his gaze for the past twenty minutes, Gavin looked up at him through shadowed eyes. He flipped his hood off.

The lights from the car’s dashboard and Gavin’s amber LED reflected light off of Richard’s storm grey eyes. He remained eerily still. Gavin decided that it was a good enough sign to continue forward.

“I don't know how to explain this in a rational way, so. Bear with me.” Gavin’s breathing protocol shut itself off. “I… I’ve done this before. Been here.” He motioned to the house. “And I found out that David Applegate is only an alias. His real name is Rico Angelo Brivio.”

Richard’s face twisted into disbelief, “Wha—”

Fed up, Gavin slapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up. He didn't want to waste all night here. He had an update to download. Nines glared daggers at him, but didn’t remove his hand.

Gavin hissed, “We’ve been here before and we’re here again because I couldn’t save our asses. And I have _no_ intention of that happening again.” He removed his hand, now Richard’s mouth hung open slightly. “I tried running Brivio’s file when I woke back up, but I could only get so much.”

Losing steam, exhaustion and pressure catching up with him, Gavin leaned back into his seat. He refused to meet Richard’s eyes and instead stared forward at the house. With the empty porch step and rotting window sill. Interestingly enough the flicker of a candle at that window was absent. Gavin let the case file in his hands fall onto his lap with a smack.

“I need this file so I can solve… this problem. And get rid of whatever curse I got.”

Nines guffawed and Gavin snapped his head up. _Warning stress levels have raised above 50%._

He had his hands over his face. At first Gavin assumed it was to cover his laugh, but he realized that it began to turn bitter. Originally on the defensive, ready and poised to protect himself, Gavin’s shields dropped. There was something wrong here.

Richard began to settle down, “You’re—you’re kidding right? I am not in a good mindset to deal with any—,” he waved his hand in front of Gavin’s stone face, “—of this.” With his voice raw from laughing, Nines coughed into his arm and shook his head. “Jesus. You know you sound nuts right?”

Gavin blanked, what was there to say? A large part of him wanted to just leave Nines at the house and fuck off into the fucking abandoned suburb, sit down, and read the file. Leaving his partner to the wolves. He quickly stamped out that possibility. Gavin, no matter how frustrating Nines was to deal with, never wanted to leave him in a dangerous situation again. He tightened his grip on the file.

“And yet you sound so serious about it.” Richard whispered. “What actually happened Gavin?”

He still doubted him. Fine. If he wanted the truth, Nines was gonna have to take his medicine.

Gavin’s LED flashed red over and over again. “I woke up from stasis, the stasis you so _rudely_ got me out of, and you said you had the address to the Applegate house. We drove here and entered since the door was unlocked. We both knew something was wrong here so we entered and began clearing rooms.” Gavin refused letting Richard look away. He forced eye contact with him by doing his best to mirror an Anderson staredown.

“When we entered the kitchen, shots were fired and we were forced behind the counters. The bullet patterns suggest the shooter, or rather shooters, used UPM77s. You were hit, a 9mm sliced through your liver and you died a few minutes later, on the checkered tile of an abandoned house, at 9:13:32 pm. Cause of death: exsanguination.”

Nines flinched and widened his eyes a fraction. He must’ve recognized how clinical Gavin was giving the details, like it was a simple report. Gavin wasn’t done though, he leaned forward as Richard leaned away.

“I was shot by Brivio and woke back up out of stasis. In the next loop I let things go and it all repeated. This time we died on the stairs. There was a 78% chance you were shot in the forehead. I say chance ‘cause I was too busy staring down the barrel of a gun to look at the splatter of your brains across the beige drywall.”

By now Nines looked extremely uncomfortable. Gavin had done his job of scaring Richard into believing him or at least considering his words, but he wasn’t one to know when to stop. There was an intense sense of inertia within him that carried him through each word. Gavin could feel it pulling him into a spiral. If he didn’t stop now he could crash his system from stress alone.

The next time I woke up, I refused to let you go back there. To you, I must’ve looked insane,” Richard clutched the bottom of his coat, “We—we got into an argument.”

_Warning, stress levels have exceeded 75%. Cooling protocols have been enabled._

“You were driving and w—I just kept…” Gavin shook his head violently. Nines then let out a sharp intake of air, it was so quiet that if it weren’t for an android’s hearing Gavin would’ve missed it. It still didn’t occur to him to stop. It should’ve been simple to shut up and _Keep it easy. Keep it safe. Don’t distract him. Don’t let him know._

Gavin didn’t return to meet Richard’s eyes. “The next time I—you left. I stayed behind to run everything though all systems.” By now his voice was wavering and obscured with static. “That’s how I found out about this file, I couldn’t access it on my own. But. By the time I figured that out, Connor was already gone and Tina called me about how an alert was sent out from this address.” For a moment it seemed Gavin couldn’t continue, but he forced out one more note.

Gavin gazed back at the house, it was strange that one place held so much terror and death. “There’s seven men in there, including Brivio. They have lots of ammunition. I don’t know what it’s for.” He spoke in a hushed whisper that hummed with a low buzz.

Having said his piece, all Gavin had to do was wait. He flipped back up his hood and turned away towards the window. His hood thankfully hid his LED and Gavin kept his hands clenched on the file. The papers creaked under the pressure. He felt pulled between interrogating Nines on why he lied, an answer Gavin would never get. Or begging for forgiveness, in which acceptance would never come.

Richard licked his lips, due to it being so quiet the sound magnified in the car. “Assuming your pre-construction software hasn’t taken over your mind…” Although the statement seemed callus, the delivery was anything but. His voice was smooth and carefully measured. “I… I don’t really know what to say, Gavin. What you’re describing is impossible and yet you have so much detail.”

He paused for a moment. It started to rain. “I also know that you’re being genuine. So even if I don’t quite get your… situation, I can still—” He bit back a word, Gavin knew what it was. _Indulge._ “—help you.”

In honesty, all that Gavin needed was some kind of trust. Something tangible he could hold on to and prevent another round of deaths. He knew that Richard could give him that. After what felt like hours, his LED finally shifted from red to yellow. He could work with begrudging acceptance.

Beside him, Richard scratched at the _barely_ there scruff under his chin. “Well. What are we waiting for? Let’s see what this file can tell us.”

Gavin straightened out the file on his lap. The hard part was over, now he could safely clean up sections of his systems that really took a beating under all that stress. He’ll still have to push back that update for now, but overall everything was just a bit better.

Outside the rain picked up from a drizzle to a steady rainfall. Not enough to be considered a downpour, but it would be unpleasant to be caught in it.

Gavin crossed his legs and put the file in his lap. It was hard not to get his hopes up. He held the weight of his life and past lives in his hands. 

Without much fanfare, he flipped it open and quickly scanned its contents. He felt Richard lean against his side and examine the documents as well. Gavin titled the files toward him so they could read them together. As an android, Gavin flipped through page after page, all this information was shit he already knew. There were details about his rap sheet that were unknown, but overall it seemed like Brivio’s file was mislabeled as important. Blah, blah, proficient drug lord, _whatever. What was new, what was out of the ordinary, how can I get this bastard._

He feigned Richard’s need to completely read the papers. Growing in desperation, GV200 moved to the next page, then the next, then the next, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Most of the classified shit held all the secrets at the end. Nines couldn’t keep up with the rapid pace so instead he resorted to staring at a frantic Gavin. His LED flashed like a light show.

He stopped at the second to last page. It was a notice for an operation to take place on the morning of April 18th in the hopes to take down Brivio’s main headquarters.

There was even an addressed attached and everything.

Gavin’s face split into a grin and his LED sparked blue. He couldn’t believe it, coincidences like these just didn’t happen often. It was like a spotlight shone down, a light to follow out of this curse. 

Richard took the files from him and leaned away. Gavin was too busy calculating his chances at success to miss the casual warmth.

Opportunities spread out before him on a silver platter. _He could get out of this goddamn mess._

]Nines, of course, had to break his bubble. “You really think bringing justice to Brivio will solve this... problem?”

It makes sense doesn’t it? I—I mean that’s how it worked in Groundhog Day.”

Gavin watched Nines bug his eyes and clench his jaw. The fire inside him thrummed and in tandem, several alerts popped up to warn him about overheating his systems. “Look, Dick. I don’t have many other options that would explain any of this and don’t run by any with me, because I already went through them.” Gavin got up in his side, mirroring Richard’s position from earlier. Only Gavin’s intent was much more violent. “But if you have something to say about me and how _I_ work, then say it now.”

Nines pursed his lips and simply finished reading the notice, flipping it closed. Fingers with perfectly manicured nails tapped on the file. Gavin’s anger slowly dissipated and he moved away from him.

Richard licked his lips. “I’m only suggesting that you may need to figure out alternatives if this plan doesn’t work, Gavin.” He turned his head and grey-blue met grey-green. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you need backup plans. How sure are you that getting, or in this case—” he held up the file, “—witnessing his arrest tomorrow, will fix everything?”

“I—” Gavin closed his mouth with a sharp _click._ There wasn’t any way to be sure about any of what was happening to him. “I’m hoping. If it doesn’t…” he shook his head, “I’ll figure it out if I get there.”

Richard reclined back into his seat. After a few seconds of stewing, he held the file towards Gavin, who took it gingerly. Outside the rain picked up slightly, but if the forecast was to be believed then this was the worst it was going to get. Water ran down the windshield in rivets and caught the flashes of color Gavin’s LED spun to.

Richard cleared his throat, “Well. Let’s hope for the best.” He then turned the car back on and shifted into reverse.

They lapsed into a drowning silence. The kind that killed off conversations and only gave room for the soft hum of machinery and Richard’s breathing as he drove under the speed limit. Gavin couldn’t say what Richard was thinking, but he assumed it wasn’t anything like what was happening with his systems. Even though the worst of it was over, evidence of his spiral into chaos still lingered in his CPU like a sticky residue.

Faded and glitched the self made commands of, _Can’t talk while he’s driving. Don’t distract him. Keep it easy. Keep it safe. Don’t distract him._ still swam around his visions along with the many alerts and internal reports to get into a satsis cycle. Gavin gave a half-assed attempt to dismiss them, but they never left. He wasn’t really running on all gears at the moment and if he were to force it again, he just crash and pass out.

GV200 sighed simply to help expel hot air from his suffering biocomponents. Gavin needed a goddamn vacation after this. Too bad he would never be able to get one, unless Nines decided to suddenly treat himself. Gavin looked over at the detective. A scan still read that he needed sleep. Or maybe a vacation.

Smirking Gavin chided, “Hey, can you promise me something?”

Nines turned a corner smoothly and Gavin stiffened, “Hmm. I guess that depends on what it is.”

Gavin uncurled his legs and spread out into his seat. He looked out the window, small boutiques and fast food chains sped by. “Can you take a vacation after this?”

That startled a small laugh from Nines and Gavin looked back at him quickly. His scans were unhelpful. _Flushed cheeks, lazy smile, relaxed posture. At ease and ceptable to propositions._

“I think based on, _everything_ , you should just take a vacation.”

I can’t. I have to stay with the DPD. So if you take a vacation, as your partner, it would make sense for me to come along.”

“Using me for your own benefit? Damn, Connor was wrong. I’m a _great_ influence on you.”

Gavin huffed a laugh, _smartass._ “Speaking of the DPD. We’re definitely not on the route back there.” The street there were on had more than half the buildings abandoned. “Are you finally following through with your first promise?”

Richard winced and didn’t say anything. Perhaps bringing back up his early threat of, _I will drag your plastic ass out to an undisclosed location and tear you apart for sellable biocomponents._ was a bit, much. Gavin refused to apologize for bringing it up on many levels, most of all was his reply to the insult. _I’m made of reinforced cassis dumbass. You couldn’t touch my insides without my consent._ Of which, Richard replied with a fist to his winking face. Really it proved Gavin’s point. Richard had to wrap up his fingers for cracking a few bones. 

“No… I’m.” Gavin’s interest was peaked, a flustered Richard? What were the chances? Maybe all of this was a matter of luck, both good and bad. He cleared his throat again, “I’d figure that we’ll both go to the raid tomorrow, so it made sense to me that I’d just bring you to my apartment and just. Stay there until we have to leave.”

Gavin liked that idea.

He liked it _a lot._

He had been to Richard’s apartment many times, all of which when he was uninvited. This time it would be under significantly different circumstances, but despite the heavy tone, Gavin was assured by the familiarity. He really didn’t want to go back to the station, there was _nothing_ lived in there. Gavin would forever be in Fowler’s debt for giving him a new life, but _god._ The fucking charging stations sucked. What was the point of being deviant if he couldn’t fucking _relax?_

There was also his system urging him to keep Nines safe and under a watchful eye. Those damn glitched alerts still didn’t leave him, so above all he wanted to make sure he was okay. The last time Gavin left Richard to his own devices, both Nines and Tina were killed. GV200 wasn’t making that mistake again.

But instead of saying any of that, he only nodded and said, “Okay.”

-

Every time Gavin sneaked into Richard’s apartment, it was through his balcony. So the proper walkup was strange and alienating. Gavin naturally took note of as much detail as he could. 

The hallway leading to his place was covered in worn jade green carpet with its edges frayed. Each door looked like it was covered in fifty years worth of abuse and grime. Richard’s apartment key had a small keychain of a cat.

Inside his apartment was small, but the space was well used. There was no clutter, not a single dirty dish in the sink, and every object on every counter seemingly had a space to it. A bookshelf on one wall had a spansive collection, with books lined up just perfectly that you could’ve confused it for a set in a housing catalogue. A fake plant resided alone, but it commanded the space, in the corner of the room. It was a gift from Connor apparently and according to Nines, he gave it so Richard could take care of something.

of spite, Nines got Puma Thurman from the shelter a few days later. Now the plant only functioned to fill space and be a barrier the cat could hide behind. Curled up on the black leather couch, blending in, was Puma Thurman herself. She nodded her head up, sleepily blinked awake, and Gavin immediately made a beeline for her.

Just a few steps behind him, Richard walked in and locked the door with a sigh. From his view on the couch, petting Puma, Gavin watched Nines with curiosity as he took care of his tasks. Evident in his dropped shoulders and his slow, pacing walk, it was pretty clear that soon as he stepped through the door, Richard was exhausted. Each movement he made had weight, from putting his coat up to preparing Puma’s dinner.

At the sound of a can opening, Puma left her spot and hopped up on the granite counter. Nines moved fluidly, going from one action to the next with tired and practiced ease. There was absolutely no reason why this fascinated Gavin as much as it did. Maybe it was because, even after all these times seeing it, watching Nines be… domestic, was bizarre.

Not in a bad way, Gavin couldn’t really decipher what drew him in. Deviancy afforded him a lot of things, but the entire range of emotion was still out of his grasp. Perhaps Nines would know. He made a note to ask about it later, hopefully by the time all of this shit blew over.

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot.

With his chores completed, Richard left the kitchen and walked into the living room, Gavin watching his every step. He stopped beside the couch, without looking down to adress GV200 Nines murmured, “I’m going to bed. Wake me up twenty minutes before we have to go.” With that he shuffled dead on his feet towards his bedroom and closed his door with a satisfying raddle. 

Two glitchy commands popped up into the forefront of his vision.

→ Ke---,ep KEep N9in9es9 aliveeve.. → Folllll9ow h_iM.

To accompany the pair was a false proximity alert for danger, that message was too busted to even stay up for too long before it crashed. Gavin leaned back in the sofa and tried to dismiss the commands. It wasn’t of any use, they just popped back up again, moments later only in the corner of his vision.

There was only one time when he had his commands and alerts freak out like this. He shook his head, the circumstances were _different._ But at least it was in part a lesson to learn. Part of the reason the commands couldn’t go away was because some inner machination of his CPU dictated that the instructions were too important to get rid of. Simplistically, Gavin wanted to complete them. And there wasn’t much reason to not go through.

He slid down onto the couch so he was lying on top of it. While he wanted to follow, it was unwise to. Nines liked his privacy and when Gavin first started to invade his home he set ground rules quickly once it became apparent that Gavin was gonna keep coming over.

_“Rule number one,” Nines shoved Gavin’s feet off his lap, “No shoes on the couch.”_

_“Rule number two,” Nines turned the TV on and began an episode of Physic Detective: Hindsight 20/20, “I get to choose what we watch and you don’t say a damn word about it.”_

_“Rule number three,” Nines pointed to a lone door in the corner of the room, “You, under any circumstances, are not allowed to go in my bedroom.”_

_“What about if I gotta wake you up?”_

_“You have my phone number, get creative. For now that’s all the rules I have. I’m sure with you breaking in every now and then I’ll create more.”_

Gavin didn’t really have to adhere to them, but he respected them reluctantly so he followed through with each rule. To a degree. Loopholes were fun to abuse.

Gavin took off his shoes and placed them right next to the couch like how he often saw Richard do. Now relaxing comfortably on his couch, Gavin readied his system for satsis. It was a long time coming and hopefully some of the problems he was having would correct himself after his update. Sometimes if he went too long without an update, things tended to get a little haywire. But never to this extent.

→ Entering stasis… Please ensure GV200 872 312 107 -34 is in a charging station or other affiliated CyberLife charging ports…

. . . 

. . . 

. . .

The sound of a silenced pistol going off shook him out of stasis.

Gavin’s systems were always in high alert, thus a loud noise was enough to bring him out quick enough to catalogue the type of gun and location.

A 9mm and the bedroom.

Gavin threw himself off the couch and ran towards the bedroom where Puma Thurman was yowling at the door.

_April 18th, 2:21 am, 2037. Alarm is set to go off in one hour and thirty-nine minutes—_

He could barely concern himself with fear, knowing was all that mattered.

Throwing open the bedroom door, Gavin ran in a few yards to pass a corner and came to a shuddering stop. The scene stilled for a second as his processors analyzed the scene.

Standing over the bed was the shooter dressed in all black. His CPU calculated that based off his stature the perpetrator was a man, but it couldn’t give much else. The man was wearing a mask which threw Gavin’s facial recognition software. He was holding a 9mm as suspected, the gun reeked of gunpowder as it hovered over the bed. Following the line of sight, Gavin’s vision turned red.

Richard was there, on the bed, dead again.

His half-lidded eyes indicated that Nines had been asleep when the bullet had cut through his brain. His mouth, slightly ajar, pooled out droplets of blood onto the black sheets, soaking the spot underneath him. The shot was taken at just a precise angle that his brain splatter crossed the rest of the bed and flew onto the wall, dripping down the grey paint like rain on a windshield.

And to the far left, the window was open. The shooter climbed the fire escape, could’ve seen Gavin in through the balcony door and instead crawled into a more direct path. Now for the _how,_ Gavin knew immediately. The Applegate house. With Brivio’s background they would’ve seen them pull up and it would’ve been easy for one of his men to be sent off to tie up a loose end. If Gavin wanted to save their lives he would not only have not enter the house, he couldn’t even show up in the driveway.

At last, it all caught up with him.

It hit him at once, fear, loss, denial, defeat, and anger. So much anger. Emotions that had been put on the backburner in favor of figuring out the killer.

He had been so fucking close. He’d had it, he’d _had_ it. A date, a time, it was a goddamn notarized invitation. All he had to do was one simple job, watch over Nines and keep him safe. And even that he couldn’t do. It was all so simple and he fucked it up as always. Nines was dead again because of his mistake. He died over and over and over because Gavin kept screwing up.

He clenched his fists as time came back to normal speed. The murderer twisted his gun from the small precise hole in Richard’s head to Gavin.

He was sick of this. Every time he got a little bit closer, the sweet taste of victory just a little more within his reach. And each time the deaths got worse and worse. Gavin couldn’t deal with it all, not even his body was equipped to suffer this much pain and heartache.

Throwing caution to the wind, because _fuck it. Fuck you. Fuck the universe. Fuck CyberLife. Fuck everyone who’s ever stood in his way. Fuck his own life and **save Richard.**_ Gavin leaped forward baring his sharp ceramic teeth, fully intending on ripping the bastard’s trachea from his throat.

But there was just too much distance.

He heard a click. Then a gunshot.

\-----

“Gavin—”

GV200 grabbed the papers out of his hand and flung them against the closest wall. The file hit a lip on his desk and the papers flew into the air. They cascaded down to the ground like fluttering doves.

When the last slip of paper floated onto the tile, Gavin analyzed the clutter. They were spread out in the pattern of blood on a bedroom wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personally I love the potential of Gavin and Hank in Reverse AU. My android Gavin's life goal is to be a Detective and he has to work through a lot of bullshit to get close to that. But Hank has his job handed to him on a silver platter. Literally made to be a Detective. Cue fighting between the two.


	6. April 18th, 5:45 am, 2027

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Gavin.” Richard pleaded. 
> 
> He didn’t want to look at his face. He didn’t want to get disappointed again when the same beautiful face was covered in blood. He didn’t want Nines to say the same things and do the same things like last time, because then it’s rehearsed. And Gavin couldn’t bear to lose Richard’s kindness to desensitization. 
> 
> So much had already gone to shit. The only thing Gavin had going for him is that Richard was _with him._

_Warning! Stress levels have reached 95%, cooling protocols have been enabled._

His body clicked and soft whirrs and labored breathing filled the dead silence. Everyone was staring, Gavin could sense their eyes were focused on him and the panic attack he was having. 

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot.

Gavin couldn’t help it, his breath came out glitched and warped, an equivalent to a human sobbing. Everything he had just spent the last few hours doing was for nothing. Every attempt to save Richard’s life, he failed. Every swindle for information was wasted. Everything, everything, _everything—_

His last bit of hope faded, fuck he knew he shouldn't have put that much trust into one plan. 

Slowly, like the papers, he drifted to the floor. His legs sprawled out underneath in an uncomfortable position, but he couldn’t and didn’t care. 

What more could he do?

_Warning! Stress levels are still too high. Forced reboot initiating in five minutes. Saline solution release is advisable. Deploy?_

_→ Yes._

“Gav?” A soft velvety voice called out behind him. Only a handful of people called him that—ever. The shortened version of his name. A moniker that had kickstarted his deviancy. 

But Gavin didn’t turn around. He would just cry harder if he saw his face, untouched by sweat, blood, and shrapnel. 

“...Gav?” Again, he didn’t respond. Richard turned away from him and spoke to the crowd of people watching the disaster unfold. His voice turned on a dime to ice, “I suggest those who are still here with their thumbs up their asses leave now. The reports you refused to finish earlier will be waiting for your return tomorrow morning.” 

More silent stares.

_“Now.”_ Nines growled.

At this time of night only rookies were working which meant that Detective Anderson had authority. Or his Lieutenant of a brother. 

The shuffle of paper. The packing of bags. The rustle of coats. The clicking of shoes on linoleum. 

Then things were quiet again and Gavin was left with his thoughts. He’d had a breakdown a few loops ago. It hadn’t been as public as this, but emotional all the same. Would Nines repeat the same things again? So far everything was different, but it was a question of how long until Richard began his script. 

A pair of long legs walked into his vision and crouched down. Gavin stared harder at the floor willing for his body to cool down. On the bright side, his stress levels decreased to a level where a forced reboot was no longer a threat.

“Gavin.” Richard pleaded. 

He didn’t want to look at his face. He didn’t want to get disappointed again when the same beautiful face was covered in blood. He didn’t want Nines to say the same things and do the same things like last time, because then it’s rehearsed. And Gavin couldn’t bear to lose Richard’s kindness to desensitization. 

So much had already gone to shit. The only thing Gavin had going for him is that Richard was _with him._

“Are you—” He paused. Gavin’s fears were coming true. “Should I—”

Richard opened his mouth to speak, but Gavin refused for things to be the same. Not again. “S-Stop it. Don’t say anything—d-don’t do anything.” His voice wavered, but through the collapse he pushed out one last request before his voice box gave out, _“Please.”_ His LED flickered.

So Nines did. 

Out of the corner of his vision, Richard shuffled in place for a moment. Gingerly, he sat down fully on the ground, crossing his legs and putting his hands in his lap. While Gavin remained hunched over, hands fisted on the tile, legs askew. 

Thinking ahead only saw a rise in his stress levels or kept them steady. So he went back to the basics, cataloging and reviewing everything he knew. Who knew a simple set of commands to keep deviancy away would evolve into calming technique? 

It was April 17th, 8:59 pm, 2037. It was partly cloudy with a 46% chance of rain. He needed to finish his update. Richard showed signs of sleep exhaustion. For optimal chances of survival, he and Nines couldn’t leave each other’s sight. Gavin also needed to eliminate the chance of going to the Applegate house.

Wait a fucknig minute— 

“Eventually Gavin you gotta talk about whatever’s bothering you this much. Maybe not now, maybe not tonight, but eventually.” Richard brought back his sweet soothing voice. 

Gavin was an idiot.

He was a _fucking idiot._

The longest loop he’d been in hadn’t been without fruit, progress had been made that stuck between them. He didn’t have to get the file from Hank and Connor again, the information for the raid was still with him. There was a clearer path ahead. Besides making sure Nines didn’t know about the time loop, because _fuck_ having that conversation all over again, he needed to keep them away from the Applegate house. And potentially his apartment. 

Gavin sighed, his stress levels were already on track for normalcy and he could turn off his simulated breathing program again. The malfunctioning commands were gone, the one thing that didn’t survive the transition between loops. Now they were only a memory and a blackmark on his error log.

“Are you—” Gavin began, but cut himself off. _Ah shit._ He forgot that in this loop he cut Richard off before he said anything about what was in the files. Gavin grabbed the nearest piece of paper and skimmed it. It had the tailend of a eye-witness report so it was practically nothing. _Yup. Sure did read the address for the Applegate house on this slip of paper, yes sir._

He dismissed some errors from his vision and restarted, “You have the address for Applegate. Are you going tonight?” Gavin cautiously looked up at him. Richard still had his impeccable face intact. Gavin uncurled his fingers and pressed his palms against the floor. 

Nines looked at the sprawl of papers around them and pursed his lips. “Mhm. No.”

_Liar,_ Gavin mused, but couldn’t sum up any anger behind the remark. 

A mission appeared in his HUD.

→ Watch the raid.

Gavin wiped his face with his sleeve and got up from the floor. Watery teal streaks stained the fabric, but Gavin wasn’t bothered. The marks would disappear in an hour, or less depending on the severity of the stains. Richard stood up after him, looking surprisingly meek. He was tilting his head down and hunching his shoulders. 

Gavin’s LED shifted into a pale yellow, “Nines, give me your keys. I’m gonna drive.”

Richard huffed and looked at him, “I’m not sure you—”

“—should drive?” Gavin finished and immediately bit his tongue. Getting into a fight was not only stupid, but dangerous. Richard, as stubborn as he was, could be agreeable. But Gavin had to stop poking the bear and start picking his battles. Lowering his voice and avoiding eye contact again he mumbled, “Please?”

Twice in the span of a few minutes. He was breaking records. And based on the wide eyed look Nines had, he knew it too. 

Not a moment later though Gavin found Richard’s keys thrust into his field of vision. Shit, maybe he should say ‘please’ more often, damn his ego. “Long as you tell me what _that_ was about.”

Softly, he took them into his palm. “I’ll tell you… later. Not—not tonight.”

Richard hummed and walked off towards the parking lot. Gavin looked up to watch him exit and noted that the whole precinct was empty. Connor and Hank must’ve left with the rest of the group earlier. 

Stopped at the doors, Nines called out for him, “Are you coming?” His camel coat swayed slightly and he tilted his head a fraction. 

-

“This is not the route to my apartment.”

Richard sat stiffly in the passenger seat. Outside the rainfall blurred the nightlights, turning everything into a watery kaleidoscope. Gavin kept a small part of his system to pay attention to the Detective. He used the rest of it to fall back on old driving programs, carefully managing and tempering it when need be. 

Nines turned his gaze from the sprawling metropolis disappearing in the rearview mirror to Gavin’s bright blue LED. “In fact…” He drawled, “this is a route that’s nowhere _near_ my apartment.”

_Well, it’s a safe distance away from Rico Brivio’s house of horrors._ Gavin privately mused as he waited for the right turn lane light to turn green.

Richard crossed his legs, one knee over the other and straightened his back. “Listen, I like being kidnapped as much as the next guy, but.” He tilted his head, “Gavin. I have to sleep. I’ve been working since five and I’m not interested in going on a road trip at this time of night.” 

He debated if it was worth replying or not. Gavin once calculated the percentages of pissing people off when he spoke, at a minimum he was always at a 52% chance. Over the last few months those numbers were gradually going down, but the chance was still too high to tell Nines to shut it. 

Finally being able to speak his mind was a golden gift to deviancy and to mute himself left an uncomfortable hitch in his CPU. But desperation won out over his pride. 

So he didn’t say anything. 

Once Richard realized that Gavin wasn’t gonna give him anything he rolled his eyes and sighed. “I hope you know what you’re doing then.” 

The next time he spoke was 7.2 minutes later when Gavin stopped the car in a Denny’s parking lot. The location was a safe distance to any known Brivio affiliation while also being a place to stay that was open through the night. Nines was out of the car before it even rolled to a stop, but once his car was shut off he leaned on the bonnet. 

Richard never let anything go, did Gavin have to go through this song and dance each and every time they were killed?

He got out of the car and approached. One step right after another he walked around so he faced Nines. Gavin was conscious to give them some space in between so Nines couldn’t jab forward and take back his keys. 

He wasn’t gonna make that mistake again.

Richard had his gaze set on the asphalt. His grey blue eyes shone like bright lights and his hair became black underneath the heavy drizzle they were caught in. With his shoulders tight and box like Nines looked up, straight into Gavin’s grey green eyes. Immediately Gavin felt the thirium flowing through his pump stutter. 

It was strange and slightly uncomfortable, but the sensation wasn’t… bad. It was intense, all that attention on him and only him. 

Richard, keeping eye contact, lifted his head up. “What’s wrong with you?” 

Gavin flinched. The dazed feeling from Richard’s attention doused under the rain. Nothing changed. It was a harsh reminder that Nines was still caustic. Anything good Gavin got back from his break down was replaced with the familiar burn of anger. Instead of being mournful, he revealed in the comfort that it brought him and all too easily Gavin let himself slip. 

“I—” Nines began, his eyes wide at his gut remark. He then shook his head slightly as if that could get rid of truth and pain behind what he said. “Not like that. I didn’t mean it like that.”

_Liar._

“Fuck you.” 

Gavin snapped his jaw shut so forcefully that thirium bled out from a cut created in his cheek. _Thirium 310 belonging to GV200 872 312 107 -34…_ Without waiting for whatever bullshit excuse Richard had for him, Gavin stormed away. 

Following in his fast footsteps towards the Denny’s was Richard’s own. Over the rain he called out to GV200, “Look I only meant to ask what was happening.”

Gavin walked inside and let the door shut behind him, momentarily cutting Nines off. He scanned his surroundings. 

→ Plaque reads that restaurant was established in 2019. → Only one waitress. Named, Marissa Valerie Kelly, born 03/18/16, no criminal record. → Two patrons. Named, Benjamin Kyle Hoang, born 12/2/93, no criminal record. And August Brandon Greene, born 7/29/92, petty theft. 

Both men were on one side of the dinner so Gavin paced over to an empty booth on the opposite end. He slid into it just as Nines walked through the doors. Once he spotted Gavin he walked over and took the seat across from him. “I apologize for being rude, but you’ve been acting strange.” He paused for a moment then added, “Stressed. I’m wondering if anything is wrong with your systems.”

_“Really?”_ Gavin hissed, his voice full of static. “You’re assuming that the fault is _mine?_ I get that you’re stubborn as fuck, but it never came to denial.”

Richard mirrored Gavin’s pose and leaned on the counter, his arms on the tabletop, leaning in. “So I am the source of your anger?”

“You’re always the source of my anger.” Gavin bit out. 

“That’s not true, everyone pisses you off and I’m talking about right now. That outburst back at the precinct—was that really about me?”

Gavin opened his mouth to give back another biting insult, continuing their dance, but realized that he couldn’t tell the truth. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Goddamnit. He walked himself into an explanation._ It _was_ about Richard, but Gavin wasn’t mad with him. He was mad about dying again, another death, another loop. 

Another chance to watch the person he cared about most die under his watch. 

The waitress walked over, how could she not read the room was past Gavin. “Are you two ready to order?” 

Richard leaned back from a still and fuming Gavin. He waved his hand, “Oh no, we’ll be leaving soon here—”

_Oh no you fucker. You aren’t running away from your problems, especially when it’s our problem. You are not getting out of here._ “I’m not gonna fucking lose you _again_ goddamn it!” 

Richard turned back towards him, stunned into silence, hand still poised in the air. The waitress looked equally as uncomfortable. That seemingly useless simulated breathing program kicked in, “I’m pissed off because you keep fucking—” Gavin took in a large gulp of air. _Warning stress levels have exceeded 75%_ “—you keep. Leaving.” 

Shaking now Gavin struggled to find the words to explain. The alert on his HUD stayed on the edge of his vision. _Not again._ “I was having a dream, a-a nightmare I guess. And you kept leaving me.” He slowed down, “No matter what I did to change things, the same thing would happen, over and over and over and over.” Gavin pulled back from the table and hung his head in his seat. “You would always leave.”

After a few moments of white noise Richard turned back to the waitress. Both of their stress levels were at 67%. “I’ll have some biscuits and gravy with a coffee, no cream.” She then walked away, probably grateful to escape the android who was losing his mind. 

Gavin would be glad to stare uselessly at the lacquered tabletop, but instead at the forefront of his vision was the return of the glitchy and fucked up self made commands. 

→ W _a_ ,t...tc//ch the Ra _ID/_ dd.

The box raddled, constantly jerking from one position to the next. The rest of his body stayed still. 

Richard cleared his throat, “I didn’t know androids _could_ dream,” he mused. Pale hands and a black sweater came back onto the table. Richard took his coat off. Huh. 

Voice raw and thick with static Gavin murmured, “Yeah. I didn’t either.” Cautiously he glanced up at him, keeping his scans thorough. 

Richard tapped his fingers on the table, “I’m sorry for what I said back there. It was,” he shook his head, a stray damp lock of hair swayed across his forehead, “horridly rude.” One of his hands jumped up to rub at the small of his neck. He huffed, then frowned. “Uh, Gavin listen. I wanna know, why did you bring me here? I don’t mean to have an interrogation here, I’m just curious.” 

Richard Anderson, genuinely apologizing. Gavin never thought he’d see the day. 

There was one thing very apparent beside the personal revelation, if Nines kept asking questions it would lead to another situation where Gavin would have to lie or spill the truth. Nines didn’t question the “dream”, he took it at face value, which meant that Gavin had a chance to get another lie past him. 

He had to play this carefully, Gavin would have to wait for a good distraction and for Richard’s guard to be down. But he had to be quick with it as well, Nines was curious, a short and thorough explanation would bypass a chance for Richard to analyze him. 

Loosening his posture, Gavin laid his head on the table, keeping his LED hidden, breaking eye contact. It was nice, calming even just to have Richard’s presence _there._ The tapping got irregular and Gavin felt Nines messing with the edge of his sleeve that was on the table. 

→ Execute preconstruction 

“I’m sorry about my… outburst.” Gavin started.

Nines scratched at the fabric and accepted the redirection, “No, you’re fine. Nightmares are a complete bitch, it’s just shitty that it had to happen then.” Internally, Gavin winced. God he felt so guilty about this.

“Listen, uh, I’m apologizing for something else I fucked up on. I looked more into Applegate,” Gavin spotted the waitress leave the back kitchen with Richard’s food, “turns out his name is an alias.” 

Gavin sat up and Richard quickly retreated his hands, the girl came by and dropped off his biscuits and gravy. One off hand scan revealed that the “meal” well exceeded the daily recommended calories. If they were under any other circumstances, Gavin would’ve taken the opportunity to let loose his opinions. The food, the restaurant, the man with a minor misdemeanor, all of it—garbage.

But instead Gavin waited for Nines to receive his coffee, fold a napkin over his lap, cut a piece of biscuit, and eat it, before continuing with his report. “Our witness is actually a drug lord and when I found this out I may or may not have let them know who was looking for them…” Gavin trailed off, eyes cast off to the side. 

Nines stared at him. He chewed slowly, finished his bite with coffee, then set the mug down, “You—” he pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, “You gave a drug lord our names?”

“Accidentally.” 

Nines put his fork down, it clanged on the plate. _Stress levels for Detective Anderson are rising steadily._ “How the hell do you _accidentally_ give out our names to our El Chapo fucking lite.” Richard clenched his fist and took a deep breath, he must’ve realized that out of all the moments, now wasn’t the time to get angry again. 

Gavin held his hands up, “I got too nosy. If he has half a brain then he would’ve tracked me and would’ve found you as my register.” 

Richard winced and shook his head. “Don’t call me that, _register._ You’re deviant, I don’t own you.”

Ah ha, a way out. Gavin took the side comment and ran with it, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. He would have to tamper an escape, “Hank and most of the US would disagree.” 

“Well I’m calling it now. In a few more months that android revolution will be over. My brother and the envoy are getting more and more deviancy cases every week.” Nines scoffed and sipped at his coffee. “It’s like the kettle is whistling, but they’re just not listening to it.” 

Gavin elected to ignore that Richard only started to come to this solution recently, once he started to realize hating androids was no longer worth it. Through for Connor and Hank it was different, Connor was already pro-android and still didn’t realize the blight in their job. 

Now cupping the mug with both hands, Richard leaned back in his booth. He gave a few thoughtful sips, savoring each drink, and hummed, “My apartment is comprised. That’s why you brought me here.” He met Gavin’s eyes, “Still leaves some questions. Who’s gonna take care of Puma Thurman? And why wait here?”

_Shit fuck._ Gavin sat back in his booth and tried to think of a way out. He tapped on the table, a gesture that he completely took from Richard, “I can call Tina to get her. And I forgot to mention, our drug lord witness, his name is Rico Angelo Brivio. And he’s being arrested tomorrow in a raid, at five. Once all of his men are gone, you’re free to return back to your apartment.”

Nines stabbed at a biscuit with his fork, “You could’ve opened with that.” 

Gavin gave him a dry smirk, “I would’ve finished my report if you hadn’t decided to spend a few moments to affirm that I am indeed alive.” 

Richard swallowed and scowled, “Soak up the compliment, because I’m never giving you one ever again.” Nines grabbed his mug and finished the last dregs of coffee left, then put it on the edge of the counter, “Our lead is gone too.” He said, his tone suddenly remorseful, “Once the FBI has his ass, we can’t interrogate him.” Nines sighed and pushed the stray lock of hair away from his forehead. It was a fruitless effort since the lock went straight back to its original position. 

Gavin hadn’t even considered the possibility of their future after the time loop. Then again, Gavin was more concerned with getting out based on his original plan of bringing Brivio to justice. Plus, it’s not like the Redford case was at the forefront of his mind, he just spent the last few minutes looking a way for Nines not to get suspicious so Gavin could avoid talking about their deaths.

With Brivio out of the question they’ll have to find another lead. Or wait for another body to show up in the Detroit River. 

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot.

Nines continued with his meal, now looking much more apathetic. He pushed the remnants of his biscuits and gravy to the center of his plate. Silently their waitress came by and filled his coffee back up. Gavin watched his microexpressions, but for the life of him couldn't figure out what he was feeling. Remorse? Guilt? 

Richard in general was a fairly blank slate, but Gavin prided himself over being able to read humans accurately. And Nines was one of the few where he was better reading than most. Still, sometimes he just couldn’t tell what Nines was thinking. Minutely, Gavin hoped one day he could read Nines like a book. 

What he _did_ know was that Richard took most of his cases personally. Naturally this tenacity would often lead to successful arrests. But it cost his sleep schedule—which Gavin was _not_ making better at the moment—pride each hour the case wasn’t solved, and it always resulted in frustration. This earned Richard’s reputation of being a bitter asshole. Though, he was always like that. It was worse when he took a tough case and Fowler was breathing down his neck. 

Now, Nines sat across from him, lost in thought. They were running out of options. 

Who knew. Maybe Gavin could solve that crime too while he was stuck in the time loop. 

But one thing at a time. A goal appeared on his HUD, → Cheer up Detective Anderson

With renewed gusto, Gavin leaned forward and laid his body back over the table. He took the fork out of Richard’s hand without resistance and pushed the plate to the edge of the table. Like before, he crossed his arms, but instead of hiding his LED away he put his chin on his hands and looked at Nines, “Listen, tell you what. Once this shit passes we can go back to the previous crime scenes and look for a pattern that’s maybe visible if we’re there.”

Richard stared at him, not even blinking. “The chances of that happening are low, Gavin. Let alone _again._ We may have gotten lucky with the Opaque murders, but I’m not betting on it happening twice.”

Gavin, in fact, did have the numbers for that. 4%, with an even lower margin of error. Shitty, shitty, chances. And Nines knew because Gavin told him the first time he brought up this plan. For all of the preconstruction software he was installed with, none of it helped when it came to actual human interaction. Then again, Gavin was never designed to talk to people. Only to escort them away. 

Delicate conversations needed a more human touch, not the one of an android who only fully developed a personality a few months ago. But Gavin was here. And he was going to try his best anyway. 

“I uh.” Gavin pulled away from his lean and crossed his arms on the tabletop. He needed a distraction, “A week ago you mentioned getting another cat. Put much thought into that?” Richard blinked. Realization then dawned on his face and he straightened himself up before leaning on the table. He then resettled his gaze back onto Gavin and that odd swishy feeling from before came back. Gavin couldn’t qualify it, but he could relate it. 

The intense dizziness of it rose like a wave inside him and a self-diagnosis told him only how it affected his processors. Gavin predicted it was a crush, based off of what every romantic comedy told him. Strange how he was getting these sensations more and more often. And they _varied_ too. Wait shit, the funky feeling he had watching Nines prepare Puma’s dinner made sense. Gavin had no idea how to handle these occurrences, only that the frequency excited and terrified him. 

Nines smirked and the tide rose, “I was kidding. Though now that you mention it, it doesn’t seem too bad of an idea.” He rested his chin on his hand, “It’s not concrete, and this will be taken under much more consideration, but I’ll risk asking this. Do you want to name them?”

Gavin grinned. 

-

They had roughly seven hours to spend before the Brivio house raid started. 

They talked through all of it, sans the time when Nines left for the restroom. But before letting Richard enter, Gavin took it upon himself to listen to his glitchy commands and cleared the bathroom. The warped missions hovered in his vision and pushed him along to assure his mission was completed to its full. Nines didn’t interrogate him for _why_ he decided to be so clingy, he merely rolled his eyes and sighed. 

Gavin even tried to keep him company when Nines stepped out for a smoke break. Through Nines was much more obvious with his annoyance. Instead of making him outright mad by nabbing his pack of smokes, Gavin decided to list everything that made a cigarette. “Of course that’s _known._ There are many reports about how sketchy that brand’s manufacturing is Richard.”

He took a long drag and blew it straight up into the air, “You don’t have to be here with me.” 

Gavin shrugged, “I don’t. But I will anyway.” 

Nines opened his mouth slightly and furrowed his brow. Instead of speaking, he licked his lips and looked away, taking another puff. 

The protective streak lasted through the night mostly due to Gavin unconsciously following commands hovering around his vision like flies. It was easier that way, he didn’t do it often, but he needed something to ground him. 

He disobeyed when Nines decided to bury his head in his arms. A spent coffee mug and a small rack of condiments and sugar packets were pushed out of the way as he laid down on the table. Reflexively, Nines tightened his grip on his pack of cards—they were playing War earlier. Above the dark brown curls of Richard’s hair flicked one of his missions.

→ STt---&YY aW@k\3

Logically, past experience would tell Gavin that he should just slap Nines awake. He _should’ve_ done that. He should’ve followed with his mission and when Gavin did follow them, it felt good. The synthesised sense of accomplishment defined him months ago, it would be easy to continue the bad habit.

But he didn’t. And it wasn’t out of a sense of celebration that he _could_ break his mission—no. 

Quietly, Nines began to snore. Gavin had a suspicion that if it were any other circumstance, then Nines would’ve rather be caught dead than caught sleeping in public. 

The reason was simple, illogical, potentially dangerous, _human._ Gavin just wanted to let Nines rest. Fighting, reason, experience, common sense, his entire fucking mind, he let Richard get as much sleep in as he could until Gavin’s alarm went off and the death knell rang.

He watched over him and kept an eye out for suspicious activity. And if Gavin swiped Richard’s pack of cards and started stacking them on his tuft of hair then no one had to know. 

-

Sitting in for an FBI raid didn’t actually take that much effort to do. Gavin reviewed his information and found out the organizer. A quick call to them and then to Fowler, and they were cleared to be put as backup. 

Unfortunately, backup was the closest Gavin could get them, no matter how much he tried to finagle it. They could sit in and watch Brivio’s arrest as long as they could be called upon for support. Nines, before Gavin could say anything, agreed to the terms and walked off towards their van. Inside they were begrudgingly given bullet-proof vests. 

Scanning them made his system momentarily freeze. The vests were in good condition, but with the knowledge of Brivio’s weapons arsonal, a close enough bullet would tear through the thing. Nines was already putting his on and casting strange glances over at him, so Gavin simply pulled the vest over his head, even if his advanced chassis would get the job done anyway. 

Nines kept his gaze on Gavin and adjusted his shoulders. “Gavin. You sure you want to do this?” He then moved over to his jacket sprawled over one of the seats, picked it up, and began carefully folding it. “Once they take Brivio into custody we won’t get the chance to talk to him.”

Gavin looked towards the front of the van where several men were looking at a screen, “You really should’ve tried to convince me of that _before_ you started dozing off in a Denny’s.”

Nines sighed and sat down in the seat next to him, “Well, I have to get this bastard arrested if I wanna go home anyway.” 

Two men at the front of the van left and there was only one scrawny dude with an iPad. To keep his own mind distracted Gavin scanned his surroundings and took as many notes as he could. He wanted to pass as much time as possible. Yes, he was being ignorant of the main problem, but besides going out there and helping there was nothing more he could do.

All there was left was to put trust in the FBI. Who had trust _issues_ with the DPD. 

He scanned Richard. Really, Gavin couldn’t blame him for looking like absolute shit. Nines barely got any sleep and was probably still silently suffering from the loss of their only witness. The diner food surely didn’t help either. 

Gavin shuffled in his seat just a tad so he was a bit closer to Nines, who was busy staring a hole into a cabinet. He kept his stare ahead, but watched Nines for a reaction in his peripheral. Taking the opportunity, Gavin shuffled closer so their arms brushed. Slowly, a smile dawned on Richard’s face, but he still didn’t look towards Gavin. 

It looked, reluctant. Like someone pulled a string that tugged on him to smile. 

A half second later the smirk faded away back to a blank indifferent look. 

Gavin folded his arms so more of his shoulder and bicep could push into Richard’s. At this point, teasing touch became addicting. It was just an action he slipped into easily and the potential outcomes of it excited him. An unknown, but happier—lighter. A pleasant tide within him, originating somewhere around his thirium pump, rose and brought a blush to his cheeks.

Huh. Okay that didn’t happen. 

That… was a sign that this crush was _much_ worse than he thought.

Oh, _fuck._ What the _fuck_ was he thinking. Curiosity killed the cat and here he was feeding into it all. Gavin couldn’t let his little infatuation be known, let alone to _Richard._ Worse, the blue blush on his cheeks hadn’t gone away, his system registered the anomaly and was studying it as it continued. _Fuckkkkkk!!! Fuckkk!!!_

Nines turned his head towards him. His eyebrows were raised, which suggested he was curious about Gavin. Was it the panic that drew him in? Mother of fuck. He couldn’t explain this shit and he had no intention of explaining his feelings to Nines. Where—how would he start? 

He tilted his head a fraction, “Gavin?” 

GV200 looked away and removed Nines from his peripheral. His stress levels rose and to his horror the blush stayed. 

Gavin was saved by the loud commotion coming from the man’s tablet at the front. His and Richard’s heads snapped towards the sound of gunshots. All of those in the van had a 20% increase in their stress levels. Nines audibly swallowed. 

The scrawny man white knuckled his device and hugged his comm closer to his chest. With an android’s advanced hearing, Gavin could get parts of the conversation. 

_“...Left wing has been pinned down by gunfire. Requesting backup…”_

_“...Officer Rollins is down. I repeat Officer Rollins is down.”_

_“Goddamnit. Yates! Get those backup bitches in here now.”_

At that the man turned around and faced their wide eyed looks. Gavin was both terrified and offended. Nines stood up, ever ready to face danger. Gingerly, Gavin followed right behind him. There was a deep sense of unease, call it a premonition, that filled the already cramped space in the van. 

“I need you two to go through the front door. Head towards the west side of the house and give covering fire to our team there.” The man tapped on his tablet a few times and continued, looking away, “There’ll be another group of us on our way to help clear the kitchen.” 

A warning appeared in Gavin’s HUD, _Sudden shift of Thirium in Thirium Pump. Running diagnostics to determine result._

Gavin quickly shut it off, he knew it wouldn’t help. 

Oblivious to the connotations, Nines checked his firearm and went for the door. He gazed back at the frozen GV200 with patient eyes. Once Gavin reached for his pistol for similar reasons, Richard took it as a sign and took off out of the van. 

Brivio’s main house of operations looked like a miser’s wet dream. It was expansive, but low to the ground. Two stories, low roof, large stone brick, inconspicuous. The pair approached the front door. The oak door was smashed open at the lock so after Richard checked with Gavin if he could hear anything on the other side—he couldn’t—Nines tapped it open. 

The door creaked open.

_Stress levels for Detective Anderson have increased to 45%._

Every ounce of familiarity was agonizing. Things shouldn’t be repeating. The house was different. They were different. The situation was different. 

Richard, despite his raised stress levels looked over his shoulder to Gavin and said, “Stay behind me.” 

Or was it? 

Any appeals for logic were thrown out the window. All he knew now was that Gavin was not gonna let things go the same way again. So he shook his head no. 

Nines squinted. Then scowled. Gavin didn’t care. He moved through the door before Richard could tear him a new one. Without further protest though, Nines slipped behind him and as a unit they walked through the foyer. 

The interior was in much better shape than the other house. Perhaps Brivio had ‘clients’ to entertain. The furniture wasn’t rotting or covered in sheets. The walls were painted an eggshell white. Everything was just, _nicer._

His scans revealed that the rooms were lived in, small signs sure, but they were there. Guns drawn they quickly cleared room after room making their way over to the west wing. 

They were just about to go into the kitchen when gunshots raddled the air. Gavin’s and Richard’s stress levels both jumped into the 70’s. Yelling followed shortly after, but for some reason Gavin couldn’t decipher the speech. An effect of his fucked up processors? Just like the hovering broken missions on his HUD? 

Regardless, Gavin took a deep breath to cool himself down and peeked around the corner to see into the kitchen. It was a grim sight. 

Two bodies lay on the floor, both FBI. Just as predicted the wounds were both from gunshots that went through the body armor. But that was all Gavin could scan before an array of gunfire and shouting came from the left. Gavin pulled back and walked right into Richard’s chest. Nines squeezed his arm and pulled him further back as stepped in to replace Gavin.

**_No._ **

Gavin reared his head up and looked towards Richard. They both knew what the fuck he was doing and there was no way Gavin was gonna let Nines die for him. In his panic, Gavin threw his arms around Richard’s waist and dragged them both a bit further down the hallway. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Nines hissed at him. 

If Gavin responded, it would distract them and cost them their lives. So he didn’t say anything. 

As much as he wanted to run, they had a job to do. He couldn’t let these people die when he had the chance to save them. Other than the entrance into the kitchen, there was a back door the initial team used to enter in. Brivio’s team must’ve been waiting there and pinned them down. 

More gunshots. 

Someone screamed in pain. 

The world came to a crawl and turned grey. _→ Running into unknown amount of assailants… chance of survival, 0-50%. → Going around… 89% chance that more people will become a casualty. He ran the numbers on the first option further. → 60% chance of casualty and rising. Without further info, concrete numbers can not be established._

“Fucking shit.” 

“Gavin.” Richard prodded him on the shoulder. “Let’s not get lost in the numbers as you like to do. We’ll split up. Go around and support the officers coming in. I’ll watch for your entrance and cover you. There you can give treatment to whoever’s wounded there until the next team arrives.” 

“What about you? You’ll be on our own.” Gavin turned and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat, worry etched across his face. 

Nines smirked and grabbed onto Gavin’s hands, “I can handle myself. Don’t worry, I’m not an idiot. I’ll get out of there as soon as you’re safe with them.” He uncurled his hand from his jacket and lightly pushed Gavin in the direction of the door. “Go.” 

Not wanting to argue, not wanting to waste time, Gavin grimly nodded and ran. It took less than a minute for him to complete the circuit and sure enough when he reentered, Richard was by the other doorway. Nines nodded and began to fire back at the perpetrators. Gavin sprinted for the counters where two men are kneeling. 

He slid onto the tile in front of them and asked, “Are any of you hurt?” Both men, through sweating profusely and stress levels flicking 95%, shook their heads. The gunfire stopped for a brief moment just for Gavin to spot a flash of movement on the edge of his peripheral. A man wearing a dark blue jacket had ran around the doorway. 

The bastard was following Richard. 

Gavin’s vision turned red and jumped from the floor to follow. It was instinct, nearly just as automatic as following a mission as a machine. And of course, it was bait. Bullets rained down on him as he ran for the open hallway. There was two _pop! pop!_ noises and an alert popped into his vision. 

He was leaking thirium on his right leg, a bullet scraped his shin and one had lodged itself through his vest and into his reinforced chassis. The wounds were child’s play and were promptly forgotten, all said and done though when Gavin reached the other side he was fine. 

At the very end of the foyer lay a body. The fellow with the blue jacket turned around, _...Name Edward Jules Carisi. Born 11/29/…_ and aimed his gun at Gavin. Wasting no time he pulled his pistol and shot Mr. Carisi dead. Wearing no body armor, the bullet went straight through and tore apart his heart. The man dropped, Gavin clicked his safety back on and jumped over him in an effort to get to Richard. 

His vest was powerless to stop the high caliber bullet at that distance. A quick scan told him that the pool of blood underneath came from one bullet, seemingly the same one that took him down. But there was another one, more obvious and on his torso. 

Gavin didn’t have preconstruction abilities like Hank had. Instead he had numbers, predictions, and angles to tell him that the second bullet had cut through skin and had lodged in his liver. 

His vision further corrupted. _No. Nononono fuck no!_ Again. He failed. The glitched missions in his HUD crashed under all the system stress and other programs began to follow. The only thing Gavin could do that wasn’t malfunctioning was move, even if he was lagging, he could still _move._

_System error. Saline solution release is advisable. Deploy?_

_Yes._

There wasn’t anything Gavin could do to save him. The blood loss had already caused enough damage so that attempting to cover Richard’s wounds would do jack shit. Gavin dragged himself over his body so he could see his eyes. When they came into view, Richard’s head nodded in his direction. 

His mouth was open, _...Appears dry. Heavy breathing…_ eyes were unfocused, _...unresponsive. Shock is likely…_ and he didn’t say a word. Nines just stared at Gavin whose sobs were slipping out on their own. What was there to really say at that point? Sorry? After all this suffering and pain, sorry didn’t fucking cut it anymore. 

Gavin didn’t really regret things, but not being able to save Richard on any of these loops was one mark that he’d carry for the rest of his life. 

He shook his head and buried his face into Richard’s sweaty, cold, pale neck, “Please don’t go.” Gavin cried, getting thirium laced tears everywhere. “I can’t… I can’t…” No part of him wanted to go through this again. Not by Brivio’s hand, not without Nines. Things were supposed to be right this time. But even the FBI couldn’t get Gavin out of this hell. 

Clinging tighter and mourning the inevitable loss of his partner Gavin placed a hand on Richard’s cheek. Still not leaving the confines of his neck, soaking up what little heat there was left, Gavin swiped a thumb to get rid of his tears for him. 

Nines turned his head so his mouth was brushing up against Gavin’s ear. Soft as a snowfall he whispered, _“Gav...in”_ And faintly a soft kiss was pressed just above, near his temple. 

He cried harder, breaths coming faster and stress getting higher. The hand at his white cheek went upwards and stroked at the hair there. Gavin couldn’t bother to give a shit to decide whether the action was creepy or not. Selfish maybe, but this was the only time he could and went it came down to it that was Gavin’s last wish. 

He left his hair, pulled out the pistol and rested it against the vest. 

Behind him, his audio processors picked up the sound of a foot tapping. Gavin slowly removed his head from his refuge and looked towards the impatient sound. He found a pair of familiar bloodied boots. 

Rico Angelo Brivio stared down at him. Relaxed brow, slight frown, loose posture, he was _bored._ Brivio had his weapon resting against his thigh. Then he pointed the gun at Gavin’s head and Gavin moved his own just as quickly—if not quicker.

There was a click. Then a gunshot. 

\-----

“Gavin!” 

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him. 

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”


	7. April 18th, 7:20 pm, 2037

Gavin woke up to a new emotion. 

It wasn’t anger and it’s many shades. It was more akin to fear, which was familiar. Yet there was no way it could be fear. It felt different and familiar and infinitely worse. How could there be emotions _worse_ than fear? 

“Hello? Come on, I got an address on Applegate.”

There wasn’t really a way to quantify it. 

It was both a pit and sphere right below his thirium pump. Which made him at first believe it to be grief, but it flared—seeping into his other artificial organs with this dead, despair, regret, fear, like feeling. It was wholly incomprehensible. 

Richard kicked his chair so that Gavin was forced to sit up slightly. “Gavin, wake the fuck up.” 

Briefly Gavin wondered how many mental breakdowns he was going to have before this shit stopped. 

His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot.

He squeezed his eyes tightly and stood up slowly, taking a moment to register everything. It was April 17th, 8:43 pm, 2037. It was partly cloudy with a 46% chance of rain. 

Again.

There was nothing comforting about the recital. 

Richard extended his hand and lightly pushed GV200’s shoulder, “...Gavin? Your LED is going nuts, are you lagging or something?”

Gavin turned towards Nines slowly and met his sky blue eyes. A quick scan told him that Richard’s face was clear of sweat and he had a slight flush to his face. But Gavin didn’t give himself time to analyze any further, instead his mind was elsewhere. 

What was new? What did he know now that made the future different?

They made it through the night that time, lived to tell the tale of Brivio’s crown molding and polished oak floors. But other than a fucking floorplan he had nothing. Attempting to get in early with the FBI’s team would be like running into a brick wall. Being able to sit in on their mission was already a miracle to be repeated, but asking for more was a task ready to be fucked up. 

And… that was it. 

Those were his options and he felt that going in blind again would lead to the same disaster as before. There was nothing new to bring to the table. Striking a deal with the FBI could go wrong in so many ways, one fuck up and he would have to try again in the next loop. 

How could he handle that? 

“...Well,” he murmured, “you can come with me if you want. I’m not waiting on you.” 

Gavin snapped back to the reality around him. Ah, Richard was talking. It sounded familiar so it must’ve not been important. 

Nines pivoted away and stepped towards the doors. Gavin held back for a moment and watched Connor pace towards Nines, Hank hot on his heels. Before the two could intercept Gavin jogged forward and snapped the keys right out of his hand. 

“Hey—What are you—” 

Gavin couldn’t really bring himself to care about his complaints, the will just wasn’t there. Even Connor looked mildly surprised, or rather interested on where this was going. He held back as Richard pulled at Gavin’s shoulder. Connor, the drama loving bastard, was probably excited to see the return of their brawls. 

Under normal circumstances, Gavin would take the opportunity to turn this into a fight no questions asked. After awhile, Nines stopped intentionally starting them, which left occurrences few and far between and lately Gavin was even following his steps. Gavin hadn't had an excuse to fight for awhile now. It would lead to another disciplinary and another stilted conversation afterwards. 

But there was a lot of things that were different with Gavin. So he walked on, ignoring Richard’s bitter protests until they faded behind him. He didn’t stop his pace until he got into the car, _then_ he waited for Nines to get in. 

Not a few moments later Richard rounded around the front of his car, glaring bloody murder at him. Gavin ignored him. An argument was useless after all. Nines cleanly swooped inside in one smooth motion and slammed the door shut. The force of it raddled the car. 

“What the hell—” Gavin started the car, “—was that?” Exasperated, Nines shook his head.

He was breathing heavily. Gavin turned left onto a less trafficked street and designated large sections of his processing power to driving. Nines, realizing that he wasn’t being paid attention to, sat in his seat and watched the world go by. 

As the buildings around them degraded into the rotting, the abandoned, and the mundane, Richard kept his gaze out the window while Gavin drove. He kept silent through the ride. No remarks on his lack of sleep. Nothing on how this was the route _that’s nowhere near his apartment._ As they got closer to their destination, rain began to fall, picking up speed until they were at a heavy drizzle when Gavin finally stopped. 

Richard hummed when the Denny’s sign came into view, shining like the beacon it was. Nines stepped out of the car once it stopped and waded towards the bonnet. He didn’t sit on it this time. Strange. 

Gavin didn’t let the subtle differences distract him, there wasn’t anything distinctive other than timing. And instead of meeting his partner in front of the car, Gavin ignored Nines and made a beeline for the diner. Inside the waitress was serving Hoang and Greene on one end, while the rest was empty. Maybe timing didn’t matter at all. It seemed what was supposed to happen, had to happen. 

The GV200 didn’t analyze that thought further, he simply paced over to their booth. Thirteen seconds later Richard walked through the doors and languidly made his way over to Gavin. With his eyes downcast he carefully listened to take in Richard’s new response. Not like it really mattered in the end anyway.

Nines stopped at the table, clearly looking down on him and probably wondering why his android went off the rails and lightly kidnapped him. If anything, the lack of true protest in the car let Gavin know of the strength of their bond in trust. Didn’t really mean anything anyway, did it? 

Richard continued to stare for a full minute, even shuffling his hands into his pockets. It wasn’t like Nines to wait for an answer, he usually jumped into interrogating Gavin when he wanted GV200 to talk. This was new, but it wasn’t supposed to be.

Gavin kept his eyes down on the lacquered tabletop. It was yellowed with age. In one swift motion, seemingly giving up on whatever the fuck he was doing standing, Nines shed his coat and sat down across from him. 

A strange realization hit Gavin then. He had an eight hour gap of time where he can watch slightly different interactions with Nines over and over again. Minutely he wondered how many loops were gonna be different before things just stopped being interesting. 

“Is there any reason in particular you brought me here?” Richard asked, with his hands folded on the table. 

_Delaying the inevitable._

Getting nowhere, Nines hummed and tapped his fingers against the table, “That reaction back at the precinct—was that about me?” 

Gavin recognized the different wording and murmured, mostly to himself under breath, “You already said that.” 

Richard gave no indication that he heard him. “I’ve been pushing you pretty hard recently…” he mused, continuing to beat an unknown tune with his nails. After another beat of silence, Nines snapped his fingers at him, intentionally in his line of sight. 

Gavin had no idea what to say anymore. He was trapped in this hell with no way out. So he didn’t say anything. 

→ Beginning Trial 1…

A sudden smack of hands against the table interrupted the prompt. Gavin saw Richard’s perfectly manicured hands palms down and red, cautiously he finally looked up and met Richard’s gaze. It was like a steel trap, a pissed off Nines was a _terrifying_ Nines and Gavin realized that settling into a mope wasn’t the best decision around the efficient and impatient Detective. 

“You’ve never been this quiet and as much as I want to figure out what put you in this state, trying to ask you is like trying to divert a fucking river.” Richard leaned forward, further unintentionally enchanting Gavin with his eyes. “You need to snap out of it. If you’re worried about the case, don’t. We’ll get through it, we always do.” He waved a hand to dismiss any insecurities away. 

Struck still by the impromptu speech, Gavin kept meeting his eye. There was an alert for a sudden shift of thirium in his pump and Gavin couldn’t tell what emotion he was feeling. 

“If it’s something else, something out of your control, it’s okay for me to help you. I know you hate asking for help, but I can tell whatever’s been bothering you it must be a huge problem if you’re not complaining about it.” Richard gently placed a hand over his own heart. He looked… worried. Gavin’s system measured his reactions and found the true sincerity he had. 

“I’ve…” he licked his lips, “been through this thing before—not caring about the world or what people say.” He paused and looked away for a moment, taking a brief reprise to collect his thoughts, “You’re deviant and I don’t know for how long, so I can’t say if you’ve ever been in a situation like I’m suspecting you might be in.” Richard squinted at him, “So I’ll just ask, do you know what you’re feeling?”

Nines knew of Gavin’s claim to fame. It wasn’t hard to know, he flaunted it off at every opportunity he could. Gavin’s edge up, especially against Hank, was his experience with human emotions. Without the knowledge he had, Gavin would’ve never made it outside Chicago. Still, he was a fledgling when it came to deviancy, so not everything made sense. All Gavin could do was try to understand, dissect, compartmentalize, label, and use it. Either for a crime or for his coworkers to communicate with him. The latter of which had its own host of problems.

Gavin shook his head lightly. 

“I see.” Gavin then squinted, wondering where this was going. Richard shifted in his seat, seemingly uncomfortable where he sat. He huffed a mute laugh, “I… don’t know what to say. Just—” he dragged a hand through his hair, “—I want to let you know that you can talk to me about it, if you want to. I know you have an aversion to these sorts of things, but I am letting you know it’s okay.”

Richard suddenly grabbed one of Gavin’s hands and held on tight to it. It was a desperate action, alluding to what, he didn’t know. Now with his hand clasped around Richard’s, Nines continued, “I’ve dealt with the same shit too. And I don’t want it to immobilize you.”

Gavin sat up. 

“You can trust me, Gav.”

His system took note of a few major shifts of thirium in his body. Emotions, in a physical form, fucking with his biocomponents. And he recognized the feeling, never would Gavin had ever thought he’d be happy to have the squishy crush feeling back. The pit, the pain, the cloud cast over him, were still there, but with Nines passionately holding his hand and telling him it was going to all be okay—things just felt better.

Nothing about his situation changed in the slightest, only that he had Nines solidly on his side. Gavin felt affection rise like the tide within him and saw an alert that his core temperature rose a few degrees. 

“You’re my partner.”

He had _Nines_ with him. Nines was _with him._ The one constant, Gavin realized, between every loop. Brivio wasn’t always the same shooter, they died in different locations, and Nines always died first before Gavin was shot. It all came down to Nines. 

Gavin forced a memory to bubble forward, just before Richard died in the last loop, Nines had kissed his temple. At the time he’d hadn’t given it much thought—too busy grieving—but now Gavin took back his will to analyze things to the point of over-doing it. That small action _meant_ something. Humans didn’t die without sending off something they could be remembered by. 

So what did Nines want his lasting impression on Gavin to be? Nearly clinical, Gavin pulled up the other deaths, there wasn’t much to find for the Apartment or the one before that. But painfully there was a small action with the crash. His CPU, although showing the memory back, acted reluctant. Like Gavin’s self-conscious didn’t want to relive that shit. Which was true if he was being honest with himself. 

But determination won out. There was something minute there too. Richard, despite his body broken and crushed to all hell, still attempted to reach out for him. Gavin saw his blue, black, and red hand stretch its fingers towards him plainly. 

“Hey, not to alarm, but you’re really starting to crush my hand here.”

Moving on to the first loop. A subtle movement that Gavin simply never gave another thought to. Richard’s hand had reached all the way up to Gavin’s neck as if to pull him closer, only to slide off. Nines had whined in defeat. But there was no ‘as if’, that was intent. Gavin replayed the footage. In his last moments, Richard tried to grab him by the neck and pull him down—to what, tell him something?

To simply get close to him, like in the crash?

Or to—

“Gavin. You’re kinda squeezing my hand to death here.”

Ah. 

He let go. 

Richard pulled his hand back and rubbed at it to return feeling. He blinked, already noticing a sudden shift with Gavin, “Are you alright now? You look…” Nines took in his wide, but now bright eyes and 180 degree change in posture, “...better? Gavin.”

The tide within him rose, now it felt momentus. He had Nines. Who seemed, somehow, above all things, to genuinely like him. And apparently, maybe even more. And Gavin… wasn’t gonna be a chickenshit no longer. If he was gonna be stuck in a time loop for all eternity, Gavin wanted to spend it with Nines. Together—hopefully. If his crush was unrequited, then who cared. 

He had infinity to get over it. 

But on the other hand, if his predictions weren’t off then they’d have to die over and over again. 

Fuck it. Gavin was too human for his own good. He _wanted_ this. 

“I need you to listen to me for awhile.” 

It was one thing to diagnose his crush in clinical terms—knowing what he felt had the same passion as his anger, but with none of the ill-intent—laying it all out on the floor for Richard to see was a completely different thing. 

In truth, he had no idea where to even start. “I uh. I’m experiencing this different feeling.” 

Damnit, damnit, backtrack. He had to do this in a ‘Human’ way, that way Nines could understand what the fuck he was talking about. “It’s not,” Gavin waved a hand in the air like Richard did just before. Only he alluded to something different, “the being quiet thing. I…” _couldn’t give you an explanation. Maybe one day._ “It’s something that’s been around longer.”

Nines raised his brow a bit, but otherwise stayed still in that commanding posture he’d always had. His hands were folded back on the table, looking neat and orderly. 

“I have a hard time explaining my emotions I guess. I _know_ what it is and it’s human connotations, but—” Gavin shook his head.

“Well,” Nines hummed, “If describing it, is an issue then say what you believe the emotion is. We can work backwards from there if you’re unsure if you’re correct.”

Gavin paused. That was a smart idea, the perfect blend between him unable to put his more complicated thoughts to words and still getting them out. He dismissed the ramifications of the romanticism of saying it plainly. For how simple the plan was, it suddenly seemed just as hard as describing what he felt. Fuck. 

Why was this so hard? He didn’t really have to worry about what came after, yet, he still did. 

“I think I have—” _Say it. Say it._ A mission appeared on his HUD, → Tell Nines. “—Well. I’m pretty sure—”

“ _Gavin._ Just say it.” 

He looked at him. Bags forming just under his eyes, head tilted a few degrees, freckles framing his hard jawline, dark brown hair still damp from the rain. Richard’s ice grey eyes seemed to melt under the diner’s lighting, making them shine like sapphires. His black turtleneck fitted him perfectly, making him look ready to fight and ready to relax all at once. He was just so _fucking pretty._

And so so good. He worked harder than anyone else to serve justice to those who deserved it. Stern, rude with his wording at times, honest, and caring all the same, Richard stuck by his side when no one else did. On top of that he actually _cared_ about him—the android who had a constant target on his back. 

Gavin couldn’t have had a better partner. 

“I think I’m in love with you.”

Oh. _Fuck._

Panic gripped his thirium pump and he saw an alert in the corner of his vision measuring his stress levels. That tide turned into a raging storm which caused a blush to rise to his cheeks. In a moment of vulnerability Gavin slammed his head down on the counter and caged his face in with his arms. 

Gavin decided to blame that on deviancy, the piece of shit. 

He wasn’t in love… right? Well fuck maybe he was, but it was hard to tell what it felt like. Gavin thought it was just a crush, no more no less, hard to pinpoint, but easy to spot. Love felt like more, or at least it should feel like more. But with no references, maybe what he had _was_ love and he was just used to the intensity of it. 

Everything was spiraling out of his carefully created control. Going around and around in circles until he self destructed. 

He squeezed his eyes tight, but the rising stress alert still remained. Still steadily rising. 

_Warning stress levels have raised above 50%._

There was a soft pressure at one of his arms. “Gavin.” Richard said breathlessly and squeezed. He shook it slightly, but Gavin remained like a steel statue so only the fabric of his jacket shifted. “I…” Nines licked his lips, “I may or may not feel something similar.”

Gavin’s thirium pump shuddered oddly, causing an error. He swiped it away and looked up from his nest. Nines looked nervous, eyes were wide and sharp and he was biting his lip slightly. It was the first time he’d ever seen _that._ He smiled ruefully, “Maybe I was being a bit obvious with my speech. I got a little carried away there.” 

Bashful, Richard “I took a muggers knife and threatened him with it” Anderson. Gavin fancied the thought of his preconstruction software going awry, but his systems told him that everything was okay. 

It was too good to be true. Gavin scowled and scanned for any pity. It would be a whole new low if Richard fucked with his feelings like that. And to his hope, he found nothing but the truth. Which left Gavin with the actual reality. 

_Richard fucking loved him?_

“You…? Why?”

Nines furrowed his brow and gave a huffed laugh. “Why? What do you mean why? I could ask the same.” 

Gavin shook his head. He supposed it made sense. They had come a long way since their first meeting and it was hard to deny how well they actually worked together. Still—love? 

Nines, with his hand still on his arm, tugged him up as he rose from the booth. Using the connection as an anchor, Richard pulled him in. Both of them would be too proud to call it a ‘hug’ so Gavin took the initiative and called it an _embrace._

Though semi reluctant, Gavin went along with it and cautiously put his hands down to mirror Richard’s placement. One on the small of his back, teasing a hip, and the other near the nape of his neck. Gavin turned his head to the side, he was pretty sure that if he chose to bury his head in his neck he would overheat. The prospect of warmth and comfort instead of damp stickiness tempted him. 

He didn’t need the reminder of the last loop on the off chance though. 

Nines didn’t care. He pressed his cheek right next to Gavin’s and held him tight, “I think we both have shit to talk about, especially the depth of our feelings to each other.” Gavin minutely wished that Nines was an android. It would be so much easier to transmit his feelings over rather than explaining everything. And it seemed like Richard knew this too, to a degree. “But don’t get overwhelmed anymore. I’ll help in anyway I can, because if you do feel the same way about me as I do to you then I wanna know. We can go from there.” 

Nines moved his head so his chin pressed into his hair. “I’ll do my best to help quantify and qualify your emotions Gavin.” Richard smashed his mouth against Gavin’s temple, covering his LED. He breathed deeply. 

In truth, Gavin didn’t know where to move from here. But he indulged himself and held on tightly to Nines. Slowly, Richard pulled away and pressed his lips back against the slow swirl of yellow. The kiss was chaste and sweet. Even though it was in the same place as the kiss before this one felt completely different. As Nines untangled himself from his hold, Gavin could still feel the heat burn his temple. 

Could he have more kisses like that? Without the cold, damp, shakey desperation and more of the soft, tentative, heartfelt comfort? 

Quietly Richard slid back into his seat and rubbed his hands. Gavin decided to stay close. Now that he could, he was gonna take every opportunity he got. Nines shifted a little to the side to give him room and leaned his chin on his hands. He looked meticulous, his posture definitely alluding to something unspoken. 

Gavin leaned back, brushing shoulders, feeling a phantom electricity run up his spine at the action, and continued watching his side profile. “You made this big phckin’ speech about my thoughts and feelings…” he trailed off briefly to find the right words, “I’m no good at speeches. So. What are you thinking about?”

Nines lowered his head and looked at him through the corner of his eye. “Well.” he said slightly muffled, “Now what?”

“Well,” Gavin repeated. Time for round two. “I have more to confess. We can’t leave here.”

Nines sat completely back and settled right next to him, crossing his arms which pressed neatly against his arm, “Why not?”

“I looked into Applegate, turns out his name is an alias for Rico Angelo Brivio. More digging led to finding out that our witness is actually a drug lord.” Nines sighed, but didn’t interrupt. “During this discovery I may or may not have let them know who was looking for them…”

Gavin felt Richard’s shoulders tighten like a string. Deeper breaths, a predicted change in blood pressure. Strange that he never noticed these things before. They had to have been present in the previous loop, there was nothing to add this time. But then again Gavin wasn’t looking quite as closely as he was now. 

Nothing truly changed since the last loop, there was no more impactful information to learn. Still. The scene shifted in a new light, interactions from before now told him something different. Not only had his perspective had changed, it seemed the whole interaction had influenced Nines as well. 

“So. Why can’t _I_ can’t go home?” 

_Not as angry,_ Gavin noted. _Stress levels staying steady._ “I got too nosy. If he has half a brain then he would’ve tracked me and would’ve found you as my register.” 

Nines shook his head lightly and stared straight ahead. “Don’t call me that. You’re a lot more than anyone’s object.” Gavin didn’t follow Richard’s stare, instead he analyzed him. He didn’t know what he was looking for and in fact found nothing of interest, but this had changed. The script was the same, the actor’s slightly different. 

After a few more moments of silence Nines continued his role, “What about my cat?”

“Don’t worry. I called Tina, she’s gonna go in and get her.” 

Nines didn’t say anything to that. Now _he_ was being the quiet one. His detective turned slightly towards him, with a calculating eye. Gavin met his gaze and stared back, confused as all hell to what was going to happen. 

“You know something I don’t.” Nines muttered, squinting. 

“Uh.” _Fucking elegant Gav._ “Right, um.” he looked away towards the waitress in the back serving the two men. He searched his memory for any detail he forgot about he could use as a failsafe. Like hell was he gonna try to explain what was happening to him. Not again, not after this reveal. “I forgot that I haven’t told you why exactly we have to stay here.” 

Nines tilted his head a few degrees. “Oh do tell.”

“Shush—Brivio is being arrested tomorrow in a raid, at five. Once all of his men are gone, you’re free to return back to your apartment.” 

Nines flashed a smirk, quick enough to be missed, and let his shoulders fall. “You could’ve opened with that.” 

This time Gavin didn’t really have anything good to say back. He felt thrown off and raw after everything still. “Could’ve.” Unluckily for him, Nines noticed the lackluster response and gave that calculating look again. It wasn’t intriguing anymore, but if Gavin snapped back and told Nines to cut the shit with his curious nature then Gavin would have more problems. He needed Richard to drop it. 

_“I’ll tell you… later. Not—not tonight.”_

The waitress had made her rounds with the other patrons, so she walked over to the odd pair, sitting in the same booth. She didn’t seem miffed and Gavin breathed an internal sigh of relief. By the time Nines ordered, Gavin had come up with a conversation topic to divert. “Sorry that we have to stay here. This was the only place that I knew was safe and be open through the night.” 

Richard cracked his knuckles and Gavin would be lying if he said he wasn’t initially freaked out by the sound. “You consider a _Denny’s_ safe?”

“Has a better track record than a Waffle House.” Gavin nodded off towards the men in the corner, “If we’re lucky Mr. Detroit Lions over there may steal silverware. ‘Sides, you have any other better ideas?”

Nines sighed and yawned, “Well—” he began and promptly shut his mouth.

Looking for a little retribution Gavin digged in. “Well what?”

“It’s… nothing.” Richard’s face fell. Eyes awash with a certain type of hurt. One Gavin had seen one time too many. “I just thought we could try my brother’s.” 

Ah, there. The more Gavin thought about it, he realized how odd of a relationship Nines had with his brother. It was really only starting to warm back up, both were slowly making amends. Slowly of course, both could be stubborn as hell and Connor was more petty than anything. All Gavin really knew about the situation were a few things.

The brothers wanted the other to come to their side of an argument that Gavin had no idea what was about. Hank seemingly knew more, but Gavin would rather stay out in the rain all night than ask him for gossip. Gavin couldn’t blame him for this. “Yeah. I get it.” He didn’t. Not truly anyway, but the phrase was often used as a show of support so he said it.

The waitress dropped off a coffee and Nines took a moment to take a long sip. Any tension left in his shoulders disappeared and he sat completely back, head up against the booth. “It’s not like he has enough beds anyway.”

“I don’t need a bed. I don’t sleep.” The response was clipped and automatic, coming from somewhere deep in his CPU.

Without missing a beat Nines snarked back, “Yes you do. The last update you had was months ago.”

“Yeah?” Gavin mocked, trying to cover up the glitch. “How do you know that?”

“I know you.” He opened one eye and looked at Gavin lamely, “I can tell. You’re always,” he closed his eyes again and waved a hand in the air, searching for the word, “kinder. After an update.”

Was he? In that case he should probably work on taking those more often. Then again, Gavin was lazy by nurture. There really wasn’t anything stopping him now. Before he had plenty of distractions, the constant commands propelled him through the night while ignoring his system’s needs. Now, without them and with a sense of comfort, he was falling prey to the insistent alert in his CPU urging him into stasis.

He wasn’t the only one who could use some rest. Nines sat ramrod straight in his seat, yet still found room to lean his head back against the booth. His breathing was getting gradually slower and his eyes were still closed.

“Whatever,” he said, if anything to preserve his pride even if Nines could see right through him, “You’re the human here. You need sleep or you die.”

Richard frowned and opened his eyes slightly, “Fine. We can go in shifts. I’m not risking getting kicked out.” He leaned forward then, reaching for his coffee, only to cup it in two hands as he reclined back again. “Go ahead and get your update done. I should drink this before it gets too cold.”

Gavin folded his arms, unintentionally mirroring Nines slightly. Unbeknownst to Richard, Gavin had put his update off for far too long so the time in stasis was roughly a ten hour stretch of uninterrupted rest. 

He’ll try anyway, even if it wouldn’t do anything. Escaping overthinking would be the main goal. It was a little while later when Nines finished his second cup and his meal of biscuits and gravy. He woke Gavin up with a grin and a shake of his shoulder, then proceeded to push him out of the booth. Out of spite Gavin dug his heels into the slightly sticky tile just before he was out. “A child…” he huffed while he knocked out Gavin’s feet from the floor.

When he returned from his bathroom break (smelling slightly of cigarettes), Gavin pulled him back down into the booth and insisted that Nines should get some sleep. Richard didn’t bat an eye, he seemed equally grateful and exhausted even after that refresh. So Gavin spent the next three hours dodging questions from the waitress, watching her swap out shifts with another, eyeing passerby’s with a glare, and listening to Richard’s soft snores.

The night passed without interruption. To be honest it was kinda calming. Sure the elephant in the room was there but with both of them in and out of consciousness it never really hung in the air. Or at least, not much. Gavin allowed the feeling of security to wash over him and did his best to not look at the metaphorical dead body in the metaphorical room.

It wasn’t what he needed right now. He wanted Richard’s quiet company, stress free, and he got exactly that. Even Nines relished the atmosphere, neither saying a word about their respective perspectives and their situation.

In his last shift in sleep, Gavin woke up to a timer.  
_April 18th, 4:00am, 2037. Alarm: ‘Brivio’s Fun House 2 Electric Boogaloo’, Snooze?_

Gavin dragged his head out from his arms and took a minute to run a system check. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Now began the race. Could he figure out a solution to get Brivio and his men without getting anyone hurt and abolish the goddamn loops? As it was, Gavin had to stay in purgatory until he could get Brivio to atone for his crimes, one way or another. Assuming this actually worked of course.

Meanwhile, right next to him, Richard looked the most at peace Gavin had ever seen. He thumbed the three cards in his hand while he considered his next move in solitaire.

To pass the time, Gavin considered what came next, even if he didn’t really want to. The house had two exits, the front and back door. The agents moved through both simultaneously at the start and there seemed to be an influx of Brivio’s men in the kitchen. Right next to the back door.

→ More FBI at back door? → … → … → …

Richard moved the king of diamonds to an empty space and placed an already built stack to 7 on top of it. The next card revealed was the eight of clubs. Nines sighed and drew another three.

That may just put more people in danger rather than preventing any deaths.

Beside him, Richard hummed audibly but looked none the wiser to his interruption. A scan told him nothing.

He could try and convince the organizer of the raid that they should join in. That may fix things. Or lead to their demise quicker.

“Gavin.” Nines set his cards down and looked at him.

He shut down his preconstruction and reluctantly met Richard’s soft stare.

“You have this nasty habit of getting lost in your own head. Don’t overthink it, allow me—after all of this is over with—to speak my part.” He picked his cards back up, but continued to gaze softly down at him. “It’s an inopportune time at the moment, but we’ll sort out our feelings in due time.”

Nines may have been talking about the _other_ thing he was worried about, but the reasoning was the same between both events. He was an android, he could overthink and overanalyze this shit until it all became shapes and numbers. Either he spent his time coming up with a thousand different ways to destroy the paradox he was put in or do none of that and simply enjoy the time he had with Richard. They may have been in a weird flux between relationship and not, but the uncertainty was still superior to the horror that graced him on the other side of thinking.

And it seemed like Richard wanted the same. No worrying over their eventual deaths or uncertainty of where they stood with each other. Slip into the dangerous creature comfort of spending time with who you love rather than staying miserable.

Deviancy gave him choices from both sides of the scale. While the bad spiraled into the pain of sadness, mock-anxiety, and unease, the good was unlike anything a machine could ever hope. The wonders of relaxation, friendship—or the closest thing to it—and as Gavin recently discovered for sure, love. 

He wanted this.

“Right.” Gavin said, somehow conveying both indifference and cooperation. “Heads up though we gotta get going.”

Richard put two aces aside. “Hold on. I want to see how far I’ll get here.”

As if Gavin could deny that? Soaking up companionship like a sponge Gavin shrugged and felt something shift inside him. Thirium?—no. It was more like a lock turning. “Okay.”

—

The calls to Fowler and to the organizer were the same so they were cleared to be put in just like last time. Just as before, Nines agreed with the terms before Gavin could get a word in edgewise. And they both walked off towards the van to be tossed vests that would splinter under the right conditions.

Gavin, for Richard’s sake, pulled the vest over his head and quickly adjusted it. He sat down in a springy mud covered seat and watched Nines carefully.

He secured his vest in long swaying movements, moving like water. But the shift held more weight to it, no doubt the result of staying up for twenty-four hours straight. He was also more gloomy for the same reason as in the last loop, his witness was being taken away. This time around it seemed more subdued.

Richard caught his eye and straightened the end of his button-up. It was probably due to the unspoken relationship talk. Nines had kept murmuring back at the diner that he had to both think of what to say and to get some actual sleep in before they could talk about it more. It left Gavin feeling unfinished, but he didn’t want to push it.

Because he knew that if he did, their relationship would be lost to rushed desensitization.

So it seemed the conversation was locked away for now.

With a small sigh, Nines sat down on the seat. The cushion on these seats were magnitudes better than the creaking, cracking, flatlining booths at the Denny’s. So Richard relaxed into them, settling at a reprieve. Gavin moved his focus around the van, unsure if he should be relieved or not that everything was exactly the same. Even the scrawny looking dude at the front with his tablet. 

A pressure sensitivity alert went off—one of the many alarms he had set to make sure a situation like Richard’s apartment never happened again—and Gavin gazed over to the heat source. 

Nines had straightened up in his seat and ended up pressing his arm right into Gavin’s own. Oh, that was something new to revel in. Gavin looked up at the freshly minted initiator and saw him look dead ahead at the cabinets, a smile was already there blossoming on his face. Exactly two seconds later Richard looked out of the corner of his eye, down at him.

Gavin refused to grin back, after all he had to rebuild some resemblance of his pride. But, biocomponents betrayed him and reacted to the heat by spreading outwards, impacting his thirium pump to work 4.1% harder. To get rid of the excess heat he was suddenly producing his body had two automatic responses.

His simulated breathing program expelled more air (subtly of course, as directed to ‘keep cool and chill the fuck out’ as Connor once said to Hank). And, newly discovered, _blush,_ which was a lot more annoying since he couldn’t seem to shut down whatever program that seemingly triggered it.

He knew that Richard could see it too, which somehow made the problem worse. Nines turned his head fully to him, no doubt looking smug. Gavin didn’t even have to look at him to confirm that. Still, despite the frenzy his CPU was under, Gavin returned the light pressure back. If the light huff of air next to him was anything to go by, he’d say that Richard was amused at his spectacle. 

Bastard.

Nines called him out, “Gavin?” his soft voice carried well over the hum of other machinery in the van.

t created an odd sensory effect which tripped false alarms. But those alerts could have also been achieved by the realization Gavin had which made things suddenly lopsided. 

Any second now, the ricochet of gunshots would be coming out of the shitty speaker of the tablet. Sending Gavin and Nines to their eventual deaths and the GV200 into another circle of hell. 

He wasn’t ready to let go. Not now, not again. Gavin wasn’t sure if he was ever gonna get used to the feeling of dying. Or watching who you love die by your mistake.

It just—

_He couldn’t—_

Richard Anderson, the one person with the Gavin GV200 handbook, moved his arm so the warm pressure disappeared. The alarm pinged him again when Nines laid a hand on his wrist, his thumb brushing synthetic skin on Gavin’s hand.

He waited for it.

But.

It never came.

In a grievous disinterest of policy, the scrawny man put his tablet on the dashboard and rummaged through a backpack to grab a Gala apple. Gavin focused his hearing on the audio.

_“...Left Wing is secure, moving through with little resistance…”_

_“Upper floor is clear. Edward Carisi is retreating to the landing…”_

_“Yates, you can call off those backup bitches.”_

Gavin preemptively shut down his hope and forced himself to think rationally. There still wasn’t word of Brivio. He could escape. There could be another compound. Brivio could still kill them. There should be something going wrong now. Why the fuck was the sting not going to shit. It should, Gavin did nothing different with this case. 

_“Gavin.”_ Richard grabbed his shoulders and turned him away from the front. Huh, Gavin didn’t even register that he was standing. “You’ve been stationary for the past few minutes. You didn’t blow a fuse or anything, did you?”

“I don’t…” Gavin started. And promptly trailed off. Though he did not want to, Gavin pried Richard’s hands away from his shoulders. There was more resistance than he was expecting and Nines was speaking to him, snapping fingers in front of his face, attempting to make eye contact.

For now Gavin ignored him, there was no way this could be over. Every component in his body told him to not trust the situation and to investigate. Thank Ra9 for deviancy. He ducked out of Richard’s desperate claw at his jacket and shoved the van door open.

He ran out the door and onto the dry grass stopping right next to the organizer, who was picking at a hangnail. Gavin kept his gaze locked to the front door where fitted agents dragged spitting and wounded men on to the lawn. Not a moment later after Edward Jules Carisi was out, klaxons sounded in the dawn air.

Carisi met his eye briefly and Gavin was struck with… something. He saw that look before, when the tall man was standing over a dead body. But Carisi dropped his head and allowed the blood trickling down his face to fall on the grass and mix with the dew.

Richard had caught up with him and already was spouting off an insult about Gavin deciding to go quiet at the most inopportune times. “You’ve been giving me non-stop shit for _months._ Why is it that _now_ is the time you decide to not let your opinions be known? You have personal shit with Brivio don’t—”

Gavin, acting without hesitation, threw a hand back and stopped Nines from rounding around to face him head on. Unfortunately for Nines, Gavin’s hand slammed right into his gut momentarily knocking the air out of him. Richard grabbed at his arm and curled his fingers and instead of leaving little white crescent shapes under the pressure, Gavin’s dermal layer peeled back slightly revealing white chassis. Richard followed his focus over to the oak door.

Gavin didn’t move. He stared ahead as the last and most important member of this group was dragged out yelling.

Born May 30th, 1997, no current occupation, arrested for aggravated assault and served four months. Implicated in many drug-related crimes since then, a warrant for arrest issued five years and 2 months ago.

Rico Angelo Brivio dug his feet into the concrete path, but was pulled up sharply by the miffed looking officer arresting him. As they made their way over to a cop car, Brivio looked over at the crowd and met Gavin’s eye. Like with Carisi, Gavin recognized Brivio’s deadly gaze.

_“You **will** pay for what you’ve done.”_

-

“Gavin.”

_No._ He felt like he was dropped into a bottomless pit, lost and blind in the darkness. Now he had truly nothing, no one by his side and no way out. A saline solution—tears, let us skip formalities—already began to prepare itself for release.

But there was no sudden smack of a file coming down on his face, instead there was a small kiss at his LED. Comforting pressure and a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Welcome back, your update took half the day. How long exactly were you procrastinating that?”

GV200 opened his eyes to a grey ceiling, his eye sight adjusting as his vision and the rest of non-essential processes slowly came back on. There was no file, or desk, hell Gavin quickly realized he wasn’t even wearing his uniform jacket. Or his boots… oh, he was lying on a bed with his hands folded neatly on his stomach, trapping a thin blanket draped over him.

Specifically, _Richard’s_ bed. With black satin sheets and just by touch alone, Gavin could tell the thread count was 700 because _of course it was._ He sat up slowly, pushing the bedding he was tucked into loose as Gavin swept his surroundings. Nines sat on the edge, one leg off, the other pressing into Gavin’s stiff as hell legs.

He ignored the patient and bemused looking Nines for now and examined the rest of the bedroom. The window was shut, but the blackout curtains were wide open bringing in the evening sun. 

_April 18th, 7:20 pm, 2037. Update completed. All systems fully functioning._

There was no blood on the wall. The lock on the window wasn’t shimmied open. Whatever happened to him was either a dream or a preconstruction error. He didn’t exactly have the same powers as the HK800, so the latter seemed unlikely.

“I know you’re always more relaxed after an update, but I never expected you to get this quiet.” Richard raised an eyebrow and looked to the side, “Or maybe it’s the fact I settled you down in my room.”

There was no logic to why it felt like the first time in his bedroom, but it did. This. This was different. There was no dread of things about to go wrong, no panic, no glitchy alerts, just Nines looking at him with a furrowed brow over the lack of response and baltent shock written over Gavin’s face.

He closed his mouth and sat up more. “Uh, Gavin?” Nines prompted.

“What happened? I saw Brivio getting arrested didn’t I?” His memory was fine, but everything stopped short there. A lingering side effect of the loop? Perhaps, but other than the memory that it happened, there was nothing to suggest that the loop did anything else.

Nines shifted to sit himself more onto his bed and Gavin obliged by crossing his legs to make room. Richard still sat decadently, looking right out of a magazine. The silk maroon pajama pants didn’t help. “Oh yeah,” he licked his lips, “right after Brivio was shoved into a car you collapsed.”

Gavin’s LED flashed red, “You just kinda,” Nines paused and winced. No doubt reviewing the memory and based on just how reluctant Richard was suddenly being, it wasn’t pleasant to bring back up, “dropped.”

“Hmm.” Gavin ran a quick scan of his memory trying to pinpoint how he could’ve just shut down like that—Oh.

_→ His system warned him that he needed to complete his update soon or he would be in danger of a sudden forced reboot._

“My system forced me to take the update. That’s why I can’t remember it. Well,” Gavin shrugged, “clearly anyway.”

Richard looked back with a smirk, “Told you so.”

Gavin looked at Nines carefully in the golden light. This was a new view he had never seen before, and when they finally figured out the _‘what this relationship means’_ talk then perhaps Gavin could enjoy the look more often. But for now he allowed himself to be indulgent. Richard wore a soft looking grey t-shirt that had tiny holes at the frayed edges. A clear sign that the shirt was well loved, or rather simply well worn.

His brown hair seemed lighter and even fluffier, but that may have just been due to the fact that Nines looked like he was napping before he slowly woke Gavin up. Sure enough the spot next to him on the bed had folded back sheets, but a telltale dip. They probably looked like quite a pair. Lying side by side like logs.

Richard scratched at his comforter with jade colored nails. “Eventually we’ll have to have that talk, but for now, taking in consideration that you slept for fourteen hours—”

“I don’t technically sleep. That was stasis.”

"—in _stasis_ for fourteen hours and that I have to fix my sleep schedule. It can wait. Oh and I’ve taken the liberty to give ourselves the day off for tomorrow too, because whatever problem you had with Brivio it clearly ran further than my involvement.” Nines cracked a few of his fingers and shrugged, “I think we could use a break.”

“Yeah.” Gavin smiled. There was a calm sense in the air, with Nines around it seemed that everything was going to work out and be okay. The nightmare was over and he woke up to soft sheets, silk pajamas, and good company. “Maybe even a vacation.”

“Don’t push it.” Richard slid off the bed and grabbed his phone that was sitting on the nightstand. “I’m going to make some dinner now. I want to make sure though, are you okay?”

A loaded question with a simple answer.

“I am now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading and yes--I am a sucker for 'love is the answer' tropes, though I suppose you can make the argument that there was another catalyst. I have a really angsty spinoff idea, potentially even sadder than this fic ended up being. Alas, I don't think I'll ever write it. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for all the comments and support! And one last thank you to my Betas, canned-sunlight, RedPaladin101, and barbaesparza!


End file.
